Trials of surgical procedures are often not registered beforehand

A vast majority of trials for certain medical interventions are not pre-registered before their results are published, according to a new study. The FDA requires drug and medical device trials to be entered into a government database before results can be published in order to avoid issues of bias in reporting results, among other reasons. But trials that involve interventions such as surgical and rehabilitation procedures aren’t regulated by the FDA and therefore escape the same kind of scrutiny. Of nearly 1,000 studies from more than 250 journals, fewer than 20 percent of all the trials had been prospectively registered. The study authors write that journals “should be concerned about these findings” and that “they should make a concerted effort to improve trial registration practices.”