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6 - Outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2009

Ann Møller
Affiliation:
The Cochrane Anaesthesia Review Group, Department of Anaesthesiology, Herlev University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
Ann Møller
Affiliation:
KAS Herlev, Copenhagen
Tom Pedersen
Affiliation:
Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen
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Summary

When making decisions in health care all relevant outcomes should be considered. Clinically relevant outcomes are patient orientated, and measure directly how a patient feels, functions or survives. Examples of clinically relevant outcomes in anaesthesia could be mortality, postoperative morbidity, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) and postoperative pain. Other relevant outcomes relate to length of stay in hospital, intensive care admittance, quality of life measures, and costs.

Different types of trials measure different types of outcomes, and trial quality is an equally important factor in estimating treatment effectivity. Surrogate outcomes are sometimes used instead of the real outcome in question, because they save time, money and number of patients. Surrogate outcomes are, however, not very reliable and extreme care should be taken if a surrogate outcome measure is used as the base of clinical decisions.

Introduction

When we consider the implementation of an intervention in health care practice, we want to know how this affects our patients. The randomised controlled trial measures the effects of the intervention in question on the outcomes decided by the investigators. The optimal clinical trial explores the effects of a well-described, well-defined, clinically relevant intervention on all relevant outcomes, including benefits and harms, costs and ease of practice.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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  • Outcomes
    • By Ann Møller, The Cochrane Anaesthesia Review Group, Department of Anaesthesiology, Herlev University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
  • Edited by Ann Møller, KAS Herlev, Copenhagen, Tom Pedersen, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen
  • Book: Evidence-based Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
  • Online publication: 05 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544613.007
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  • Outcomes
    • By Ann Møller, The Cochrane Anaesthesia Review Group, Department of Anaesthesiology, Herlev University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
  • Edited by Ann Møller, KAS Herlev, Copenhagen, Tom Pedersen, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen
  • Book: Evidence-based Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
  • Online publication: 05 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544613.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Outcomes
    • By Ann Møller, The Cochrane Anaesthesia Review Group, Department of Anaesthesiology, Herlev University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
  • Edited by Ann Møller, KAS Herlev, Copenhagen, Tom Pedersen, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen
  • Book: Evidence-based Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
  • Online publication: 05 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544613.007
Available formats
×