A Concise Format for Reporting the Longer-Term Follow-up Status of Patients Managed with Total Hip Arthroplasty

Abstract

The Journal is receiving an increasing number of manuscripts that report longer-term follow-up results of total hip arthroplasty. Many of these reports extend findings that were originally published in The Journal and are unnecessarily long because they repeat a great deal of information that is already available. Therefore, to provide a guide to investigators, we sought to identify the essential information to be included in such a report. Our goal was for The Journal to convey the most meaningful information to its readers while saving both authors and readers from redundancy. We created this format through an iterative process. In May 2001, we solicited opinions regarding the essential content of such a report from twelve authorities in total hip arthroplasty who either are frequent contributors to The Journal or serve as reviewers and/or editors. We collated their responses and then discussed their consensus views at a meeting of the Deputy Editors of The Journal in September 2001. The format presented at the end of this editorial represents the synthesis of recommendations from experts in the field of hip reconstruction and from orthopaedic editors active in clinical research, basic research, and outcomes assessment. The format is intended to be a template that, while limiting …