An orthopedic surgeon observes that many of his patients coming in for total knee replacement surgery played organized sports before the age of 10. He plans to collect more data on participation in organized sports from four patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and to report the findings. Identify the type of study proposed, and indicate its specific strength and weakness.

The surgeon is planning to conduct a case series study. Being descriptive in nature, this type of study design involves an in-depth review of a small number of clinical cases and reporting some previously unknown features that such cases have in common. Such studies’ key strengths might include the absence of substantial expenses and the need to follow complex and time-consuming research protocols.

At the same time, despite the inability to answer research questions comprehensively, case series studies can produce some hypotheses to be explored later, thus serving as a preparatory stage for actual scientific inquiries. For instance, the surgeon’s study might indicate the presence of the exposure (the history of playing organized sports before turning ten) in all four knee replacement surgery patients, thus motivating other researchers to critically explore this potential link in larger samples.

The disadvantages of the discussed design are numerous and affect the results’ trustworthiness. The first weakness is the sample size, which is not conducive to revealing any statistically significant relationships and trends or producing generalizable findings. Next, since they are unplanned and unstructured, case series studies involve the risks of anecdotal fallacies and selection biases, so samples in such projects are not necessarily representative of the general population.

Another crucial drawback that severely affects the strength of evidence is the absence of comparison groups. Specifically, the surgeon’s study cannot prove any link between playing sports as a child and developing severe knee problems since the cases of people remaining healthy after the same exposure are not considered.

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Academic.Tips. (2023) 'An orthopedic surgeon observes that many of his patients coming in for total knee replacement surgery played organized sports before the age of 10. He plans to collect more data on participation in organized sports from four patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and to report the findings. Identify the type of study proposed, and indicate its specific strength and weakness'. 13 March.

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Academic.Tips. (2023, March 13). An orthopedic surgeon observes that many of his patients coming in for total knee replacement surgery played organized sports before the age of 10. He plans to collect more data on participation in organized sports from four patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and to report the findings. Identify the type of study proposed, and indicate its specific strength and weakness. https://academic.tips/question/an-orthopedic-surgeon-observes-that-many-of-his-patients-coming-in-for-total-knee-replacement-surgery-played-organized-sports-before-the-age-of-10-he-plans-to-collect-more-data-on-participation-in-or/

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Academic.Tips. 2023. "An orthopedic surgeon observes that many of his patients coming in for total knee replacement surgery played organized sports before the age of 10. He plans to collect more data on participation in organized sports from four patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and to report the findings. Identify the type of study proposed, and indicate its specific strength and weakness." March 13, 2023. https://academic.tips/question/an-orthopedic-surgeon-observes-that-many-of-his-patients-coming-in-for-total-knee-replacement-surgery-played-organized-sports-before-the-age-of-10-he-plans-to-collect-more-data-on-participation-in-or/.

1. Academic.Tips. "An orthopedic surgeon observes that many of his patients coming in for total knee replacement surgery played organized sports before the age of 10. He plans to collect more data on participation in organized sports from four patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and to report the findings. Identify the type of study proposed, and indicate its specific strength and weakness." March 13, 2023. https://academic.tips/question/an-orthopedic-surgeon-observes-that-many-of-his-patients-coming-in-for-total-knee-replacement-surgery-played-organized-sports-before-the-age-of-10-he-plans-to-collect-more-data-on-participation-in-or/.


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Academic.Tips. "An orthopedic surgeon observes that many of his patients coming in for total knee replacement surgery played organized sports before the age of 10. He plans to collect more data on participation in organized sports from four patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and to report the findings. Identify the type of study proposed, and indicate its specific strength and weakness." March 13, 2023. https://academic.tips/question/an-orthopedic-surgeon-observes-that-many-of-his-patients-coming-in-for-total-knee-replacement-surgery-played-organized-sports-before-the-age-of-10-he-plans-to-collect-more-data-on-participation-in-or/.

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"An orthopedic surgeon observes that many of his patients coming in for total knee replacement surgery played organized sports before the age of 10. He plans to collect more data on participation in organized sports from four patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and to report the findings. Identify the type of study proposed, and indicate its specific strength and weakness." Academic.Tips, 13 Mar. 2023, academic.tips/question/an-orthopedic-surgeon-observes-that-many-of-his-patients-coming-in-for-total-knee-replacement-surgery-played-organized-sports-before-the-age-of-10-he-plans-to-collect-more-data-on-participation-in-or/.

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