Letter to the Editor on article “ Study on Comparative Analysis on Fistulotomy and Fistulectomy in the Management of Low Anal Fistula”

Document Type : Letter to the Editor

Author

Colorectal Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Dear Editor, I read with great interest the publication entitled “Comparative Analysis of Fistulotomy and Fistulectomy in Managing Low Anal Fistulas” by Mohammad Shahbaz et al. (1). Authors prospectively analyzed data from 90 patients aged above18 years with a low-lying anal fistula, comparing the outcomes of fistulatomy and fistulectomy surgery on two 45 people in each groups. Since this study is a type of clinical trial study, some points are stated regarding this issue.

1- One of the most important issues in clinical trials, especially in non-randomized clinical trials (including this study), is the use of a blinded outcome assessor. In this study, there is no explain about the outcome assessors, who checked the outcomes like VAS score, anal swelling, incontinence, and infection in the postoperative intervals between the 2 groups. Therefore, it should be considered as one of the limitations of this study.

2- In this study, the indicator of the difference between the two groups in the investigated outcome, was statistical significance (“p value”). While it would be better to use appropriated effect sizes (Odds Ratio or Standardize Mean Difference) considering the dependence of “p value” on sample size and different statistical power of statistical tests (2).

Keywords

Iranian Journal of Colorectal Research
Volume 11, Issue 3
September 2023

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