Non‐aspirin, non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs for treating osteoarthritis of the knee

Reason for withdrawal from publication

Review has been withdrawn until an update can be undertaken to reflect the current evidence.

The editorial group responsible for this previously published document have withdrawn it from publication.

Feedback

1

Summary

I am a little confused about the restriction to publications in English 
 in this review, because this can lead to serious bias as shown by 
 empirical research from Egger et al.. Systematic Reviews in contrast to narrative 
 reviews try to reduce the impact of bias and this includes searching 
 the non‐English literature.

A second remark concerning the restriction to NSARs used in the UK. In 
 an >international organisation like the CC with CRGs on a specific topic 
 for the hole world restrictions like these should not be supported.

Reply

Firstly, the review was conducted without a specific budget therefore costs 
 had to be minimised. This meant that there were no funds available to pay 
 for the translation of non‐English language studies. Whilst this is a 
 potential source of bias it was the only practical solution available to us.

Secondly, the review was conducted to provide evidence that would inform 
 the development of guidelines for NSAID prescribing in the UK. The 
 decision was made to restrict the review to only those NSAIDs available in 
 the UK at that time ‐ this was again as a result of time and financial 
 constraints.

Sincerely,

Contributors

Mags Watson, first author

What's new

Date	Event	Description
12 November 2008	Amended	Converted to new review format.

History

Review first published: Issue 1, 1997

Date	Event	Description
27 November 1996	New citation required and conclusions have changed	Substantive amendment

Withdrawn from publication for reasons stated in the review