Paediatric Lower Limb Surgery PSP Question Verification Form

The purpose of the Question Verification Protocol is to enable Priority Setting Partnerships (PSPs) to clearly describe the process they employed to verify the uncertainty of their questions, before commending prioritisation.

The JLA requires PSPs to be transparent and accountable in defining their own scope and process. This will enable researchers and other stakeholders to understand how individual PSPs have ascertained that their questions are unanswered, and any limitations therein.

Name of the PSP

Paediatric Lower Limb Surgery Priority Setting Partnership (PLLS PSP)

Please describe the scope of the PSP

The aim of the PLLS PSP was to identify the unanswered questions about elective (planned) lower limb surgery in children with orthopaedic problems from both a patient and clinical perspective.

Patients and clinicians then prioritised and agreed on questions that were the most important.

Please provide a brief overview of your approach to verifying the uncertainty of your questions

Raw questions submitted to the survey were assembled and categorised by the data analysts into collated indicative questions, which were made clear and understandable to all. These preliminary questions were agreed on by the Steering Group.

A question was considered to have met the certainty criteria if a recent systematic review or Level I or II randomised controlled trial (published within 10 years) concluded that there was sufficient evidence to answer the question. Several topic experts in various fields were consulted to make decisions.

Please list the type(s) of evidence you used to verify your questions as unanswered

Systematic reviews and randomised control trials (Level I and Level II).

Please list the sources that you searched in order to identify that evidence

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Cochrane Database of Systematic reviews Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials NICE/NHS guidelines MEDLINE EMBASE

What search terms did you use?

Each question was searched using the search strategy and limitations outlined in this document. Broad search terms were used in order to ensure all data was captured.

Please describe the parameters of the search (eg time limits, excluded sources, country/language) and the rationale for any limitations

Evidence was only included if published in the English language and over the past 10 years.

Names of individuals who undertook the evidence checking

Vella-Baldacchino M, Theologis T, Perry D, Roposh A, Nicolaou N and Cooke S

On what date was the question verification process completed?

09.07.2018

Any other relevant information

N/A