Evaluation of abstracts submitted for the annual meeting of the German Neurosurgical Society 1999--unravelling a mystery.

The evaluation for the abstracts submitted for the annual meeting of the German Neurosurgical Society together with the Swiss Neurosurgical Society in Munich 1999, is presented as it has developed during the meetings of the last years. 597 abstracts were reviewed by the 30 members of the review committee according to a 5 point grading system. Cut off for acceptance was a mean grading of 2.7 points. Abstracts better than 2.4 were accepted, abstracts worse than 2.7 were rejected. Experimental studies were judged slightly better than clinical studies: the mean grading of clinical and experimental studies was 2.55 +/- 0.5 vs. 2.72 +/- 0.6 (p < 0.02). All abstracts with a mean grading of 2.4-2.7 and a standard deviation > 1.0 were discussed in a meeting of the review committee. 353 abstracts were accepted. Some of the abstracts submitted for oral presentation had to be converted to poster presentations. Among others the decision was based on the grading of the abstract.