DOI: 10.32322/jhsm.2011269 ISSN: 2636-8579

GUIDE-Rehab assessment of postoperative rehabilitation reporting in randomized trials after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Mehmet Akif Güler, Hüsamettin Koçak
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Aims: To evaluate the completeness of postoperative rehabilitation intervention reporting in randomized trial reports involving anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) and to examine changes in reporting between 2020 and 2026.Methods: This systematic meta-research study included English-language randomized controlled and crossover trial reports identified through PubMed and Scopus. A second reviewer independently re-screened all records and verified full-text eligibility and randomized status without access to the initial decisions. Disagreements were resolved by consensus. Two reviewers independently assessed 59 included reports using the 16-item Reporting GUideline for Intervention DEscription in Rehabilitation (GUIDE-Rehab), operationalized as 21 assessment units. Inter-rater reliability and temporal changes were examined using prespecified agreement statistics and mixed-effects logistic regression.Results: Mean study-level complete reporting across the 21 operational units was 64.8%, with a standard deviation (SD) of 18.3% and a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 60.1%-69.6%. Mean weighted reporting was 75.2% (SD, 13.3%; 95% CI, 71.7%-78.7%). Across 888 pooled applicable observations from the 16 official items, 64.9% were complete, 30.2% were partial, and 5.0% were not reported. Exact agreement was 88.1%, and linear weighted kappa was 0.813. Study-level intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.860 and 0.881. No clear statistical evidence of temporal improvement was found (odds ratio per year, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.89-1.35; p=0.394); excluding 2026 produced similar findings.Conclusion: Important rehabilitation details remained incompletely reported in contemporary ACLR trial reports. No clear statistical evidence of improvement over time was identified. Prospective use of GUIDE-Rehab may improve the transparency and completeness of rehabilitation intervention descriptions.

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