Table 1.
Surgical trials by specialty (excluding specialities with less than 10 trials found) showing proportion of elective versus emergency trials and the percentage of these that were published
| Specialty | Registered; number (% of trials in specialty) |
Published; number (% of trials registered) |
| General surgery (all) | ||
| Elective | 111 (84.7) | 59 (53.2) |
| Emergency | 20 (15.3) | 13 (65.0) |
| Orthopaedics | ||
| Elective | 86 (86.9) | 38 (44.2) |
| Emergency | 13 (13.1) | 3 (23.1) |
| General (lower gastrointestinal)* | ||
| Elective | 43 (84.3) | 27 (62.8) |
| Emergency | 8 (15.7) | 6 (75.0) |
| General (upper gastrointestinal)* | ||
| Elective | 41 (89.1) | 17 (41.5) |
| Emergency | 5 (10.9) | 3 (60.0) |
| Ophthalmology | ||
| Elective | 34 (100) | 22 (64.7) |
| Emergency | 0 (0) | – |
| Cardiothoracic | ||
| Elective | 33 (97.1) | 18 (54.5) |
| Emergency | 1 (2.9) | 0 (0) |
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | ||
| Elective | 29 (96.7) | 13 (44.8) |
| Emergency | 1 (3.3) | 0 (0) |
| Neurosurgery | ||
| Elective | 24 (92.3) | 8 (33.3) |
| Emergency | 2 (7.7) | 2 (100) |
| Vascular | ||
| Elective | 18 (100) | 11 (61.1) |
| Emergency | 0 (0) | – |
| General (other)* | ||
| Elective | 10 (58.2) | 7 (70.0) |
| Emergency | 7 (41.8) | 4 (57.1) |
| General (breast)* | ||
| Elective | 14 (100) | 6 (42.9) |
| Emergency | 0 (0) | – |
| Urology | ||
| Elective | 14 (100) | 7 (50.0) |
| Emergency | 0 (0) | – |
| Plastics | ||
| Elective | 11 (84.6) | 8 (72.7) |
| Emergency | 2 (15.4) | 0 (0) |
| Other | ||
| Elective | 15 (100) | 11 (73.3) |
| Emergency | 0 (0) | – |
| Total | ||
| Elective | 375 (100) | 195 (52.0) |
| Emergency | 39 (100) | 18 (46.2) |
*Categories combine into general surgery (all). Only general surgery (all) was included in the totals.