This study aims to develop a core outcome set for surgically treated acetabular fractures.
A systematic review was previously conducted to identify, group and categorise all reported outcomes in studies on the surgical treatment of acetabular fractures (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022357644). In the present study, these outcomes will be evaluated according to their relevance in a Delphi survey with three rounds. A consensus meeting will be conducted afterwards in which experts will assess the relevance of the remaining outcomes and decide which outcomes will be included in the core outcome set.
Denise Schulz 1,2, Anne Neubert 1,2, Steven Herath 3, Andreas Höch 4, Christopher Spering 5, Joachim Windolf 1,2, Dan Bieler 1,6, Erik Schiffner 1
1 Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
2 TraumaEvidence @ German Society of Traumatology, Berlin, Germany
3 Department of Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery, Occupational Accident Clinic Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
4 Department of Orthopaedics, Trauma and Plastic Surgery, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
5 Department for Trauma Surgery, Orthopaedics and Plastic Surgery, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
6 Department for Trauma Surgery and Orthopaedics, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery, Burn Medicine, German Armed Forces Central Hospital Koblenz, Koblenz, Germany
Disease Category: Orthopaedics & trauma
Disease Name: Acetabular fracture
Age Range: 16 - 120
Sex: Either
Nature of Intervention: Surgery
- Clinical experts
- Researchers
- COS for clinical trials or clinical research
- Consensus conference
- Delphi process
A Delphi study will be conducted to develop a core outcome set for surgically treated acetabular fractures, taking into account the results of the previous systematic review (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022357644). The results of the systematic review will be used to prioritise the relevance of the identified outcomes using the Delphi method.
Various experts will be recruited for the Delphi study, including researchers and clinicians from different specialties (e.g., traumatology, or rehabilitation). The maximum number of participants will be 30. The experts will receive a list of all outcomes identified in the systematic review and will be asked to categorise them according to their relevance. For this purpose, a Delphi survey with three rounds and an online consensus meeting will be conducted.
The evaluation of outcome relevance will be carried out using a 9-point Likert scale, with 7-9 points indicating a critical outcome, 4-6 points indicating an important but non-critical outcome and 1-3 points indicating an irrelevant outcome. After each round, the data will be analysed and the group results will be communicated to all experts. All outcomes of the first round will be retained in the second round to allow for modification of the answers based on the overall results. The experts will reassess the relevance of outcomes in round two. All outcomes that were rated 7-9 points by at least 50% of the experts in round two and 1-3 points by no more than 15% of the experts will be included in the third round. This process will be repeated in round three. A consensus meeting will be conducted thereafter. The relevance of outcomes on the inclusion list after the third round will be discussed in this meeting. Outcomes from the inclusion list for which at least 70% of the experts vote in favour of inclusion will be included in the core outcome set. All other outcomes will be excluded.