Table 1.

Quality Assessment Criteria

Quality Metric	Point Value
Evidence of Transparent Study Design
Registered in clinicaltrials.gov	+1
Use of Control Group
Control treatment arm (e.g. placebo, sham surgery, etc)	+1
Any control group included	0
No control group (for example, baseline metrics of treatment group used)	−1
Masking
Masking of study participants to treatment group	+1
Masking of study doctors to treatment group	+1
No masking	0
Duration of Study Follow-Up
Follow-up greater than 2 years	+1
Follow-up 1–2 years	+1
Follow-up 6 months to 1 year	0
Follow-up less than 6 months	−1
Independence of Funding
Government or independent foundational funding	+1
Funded by the manufacturer or inventor	0
Conflicts of Interest
Authors without conflicts of interest	+1
Authors with conflicts	0