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Approaches to Interpreting and Choosing the Best Treatments in Network Meta-analyses

Overview
Journal Syst Rev
Publisher Biomed Central
Date 2017 Apr 14
PMID 28403893
Citations 209
Authors
L Mbuagbaw
B Rochwerg
R Jaeschke
D Heels-Andsell
W Alhazzani
L Thabane
Gordon H Guyatt
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

When randomized trials have addressed multiple interventions for the same health problem, network meta-analyses (NMAs) permit researchers to statistically pool data from individual studies including evidence from both direct and indirect comparisons. Grasping the significance of the results of NMAs may be very challenging. Authors may present the findings from such analyses in several numerical and graphical ways. In this paper, we discuss ranking strategies and visual depictions of rank, including the surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) curve method. We present ranking approaches' merits and limitations and provide an example of how to apply the results of a NMA to clinical practice.

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