If you offered a patient two equivalent outcomes with different treatments, one of which cost drastically less, I strongly suspect that most patients would take the cheaper option (other things, like pain and intrusiveness, equal).
Numerous studies over the past decade have shown equivalent outcomes between these two modalities [2].
Another logical conclusion is that a lower dose in the CI group was able to achieve equivalent outcomes to a higher dose in the IB group.
The 19 remaining studies were categorized into three groups depending on whether the intervention assessed led to better, worse, or equivalent outcomes.
Cemented hemiarthroplasties have equivalent outcomes with similar complication rates compared with hydroxyapatite-coated uncemented hemiarthroplasties [26, 27, 28], and their use in our study simply reflects supervising surgeon preference.
Whereas advances in minimally invasive surgery have made laparoscopic staging technically feasible in stage I epithelial ovarian cancer, the practice remains controversial because of an absence of randomized trials and lack of high-quality observational studies demonstrating equivalent outcomes.
The ideal fixation for modern tibial components in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) remains controversial with uncertainty on whether cementless implants can yield equivalent outcomes to cemented fixation in early follow-up.
However, many studies claim that equivalent outcomes are achieved in indulgent and authoritative families, and even that children raised in indulgent families may present higher levels of adjustment (Calafat et al., 2014; Esteve, 2005; Gámez-Guadix et al., 2012; García & Gracia, 2009, 2010; López-Romero, Romero, & Villar, 2012).
A similarly designed study including patients with DVT reported equivalent outcomes between fondaparinux and enoxaparin for efficacy [3.9% incidence of recurrent VTE at 3 months vs. 4.1%, respectively; absolute difference −0.15%95%5% confidence interval −1.8%to1.5.5%)] and major bleeding (1.1% vs. 1.2%, respectively) [11].
Although RCTs are important for evaluation of effectiveness and cost effectiveness, they are best undertaken only when: (1) the intervention and its delivery package are stable; (2) these can be implemented with high fidelity; and (3) there is a reasonable likelihood that the overall benefits will be clinically meaningful (improved outcomes or equivalent outcomes at lower cost).
