Table 3. GRADE evidence profile: Surgery plus physiotherapy vs placebo surgery plus physiotherapy.
| Quality Assessment | Summary of Findings | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Outcome (No. of studies; design) |
Limitations | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Publication Bias | Surgery plus Physiotherapy | Placebo Surgery plus Physiotherapy |
SMD / WMD (95% CI) |
Quality |
| Pain at 3 months (1 RCT) [10] |
Serious limitations | N/A | No serious indirectness | Serious imprecisions | Unlikely | 54/109 | 55/109 | SMD 0.11 (-0.27–0.48) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low |
| Pain at 6 months (2 RCTs) [9,10] |
Serious limitations | No serious inconsistency | No serious indirectness | No serious imprecisions | Unlikely | 140/283 | 143/283 | SMD 0.08 (-0.15–0.32) |
⊕⊕⊕⊝ Moderate |
| Pain at 1 year (2 RCTs) [9,10] |
Serious limitations | No serious inconsistency | No serious indirectness | No serious imprecisions | Unlikely | 122/250 | 128/250 | SMD 0.06 (-0.21–0.33) |
⊕⊕⊕⊝ Moderate |
| Pain at 2 years (1 RCTs) [10] |
Serious limitations | N/A | No serious indirectness | Serious imprecisions | Unlikely | 59/118 | 59/118 | SMD -0.26 (-0.62–0.10) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low |
| Function at 6 months (2 RCTs) [9,10] |
Serious limitations | No serious inconsistency | No serious indirectness | Serious imprecisions | Unlikely | 141/286 | 145/286 | SMD -0.20 (-0.48–0.08) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low |
| Function at 1 year (1 RCT) [9] |
Serious limitations | N/A | No serious indirectness | Serious imprecisions | Unlikely | 76/157 | 81/157 | SMD 0.07 (-0.24–0.38) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low |
| Function at 2 years (1 RCT) [10] |
Serious limitations | N/A | No serious indirectness | Serious imprecisions | Unlikely | 59/118 | 59/118 | SMD 0.26 (-0.10–0.62) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low |