Page 104 - Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis Pathogenetic and Clinical aspects

Chapter 6
Methods
The Evidence Analysis Work Group of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America devised a survey to obtain basic demographic and volume data on the members of the society managing acute unstable SCFE [6]. The survey also aimed to address areas of controversy in the management of this condition. Our questionnaire was based on the same elements and was distributed to orthopaedic surgeons in both the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands with an expressed interest and expertise in paediatric orthopaedics. These surgeons were identified by their membership of either the British Society of Children’s Orthopaedic Surgery or the Werkgroep Kinder Orthopaedie. Initial contact was by e-mail when such an address was available, otherwise a work fax number was used. The use of free text comments was encouraged. All nonrespondents were sent a reminder: in the UK, by fax and in the Netherlands, by post. We excluded clinicians who were retired or who explicitly stated that their practice did not include urgent/emergency work such as this. We also excluded overseas members of both societies.
Statistical analysis
All responses were collected and data entered initially into an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, USA). The data were subsequently transferred to a SPSS file for statistical analysis. The results for the UK and for the Netherlands were compared with each other (and with the results from the POSNA survey) using the Pearson χ2 test and SPSS version 12.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). A P value of less than 0.05 was taken to be significant.
Results
A total of 220 questionnaires were distributed (149 in the UK and 71 in the Netherlands). The overall response rate was 65% (142 surgeons) and was similar for both countries. A complete review of all responses from both societies is presented in Table 1.
Among respondents, the median duration of consultant practice was 11 years (mean 12.9, range 1–35 years). Overall, 63% of these surgeons spend more than half their time in paediatric orthopaedic practice.
102