Surgeon Level of Expertise in Adult Reconstruction: A Brief Communication Regarding the Need for Reporting the Level of Expertise.

The purpose of the current brief communication is to establish a discussion regarding level of expertise (LOE) documentation in future arthroplasty clinical studies and to document the trend in adoption of LOE among arthroplasty publications to date. A review of (), (), and () databases for original studies published between April 2016 and July 2020 was performed. A total of 105 articles were identified and evaluated in , 1011 in , 127 in , and 383 in . Of 1011 articles identified in , only one manuscript (1/1011; 0.1%), by Uluyardimci et.al, included the LOE of the surgeon(s) involved in the study. No articles in (0/125; 0%), (0/127; 0%), or (0/383; 0%) reported the LOE according to Tang's recommendations during the same period. Documenting LOE may provide readers with additional information for incorporation of novel techniques into their practices as well as identify procedures that require a baseline LOE for effective performance. Further evaluation of LOE criteria may improve the reliability of the numeric scale, while widespread adoption of this scale will allow future outcome analysis by LOE.