Usefulness of orthopaedic shoulder surgery trials: Are they meeting key criteria?

Background: Shoulder surgery is a significant subset of orthopaedic interventions, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are critical for advancing surgical techniques and informing clinical guidelines. However, poorly designed or inadequately reported RCTs make applying findings to clinical practice more difficult. This study applies a usefulness assessment tool developed by van’t Hooft et al. to evaluate the utility of shoulder surgery RCTs published in the past five years, aiming to identify trends and gaps to improve trial design and reporting.