Preferred Reporting Of Case Series in Surgery (PROCESS) 2023 guidelines
Ginimol Mathewa b c, Catrin Sohrabia b c, Thomas Franchib c d, Maria Nicolab c e, Ahmed Kerwanb c f, Riaz Aghab c g, PROCESS Groupb c h
- aRoyal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- bSponsorships or competing interests that may be relevant to content are disclosed at the end of this article
- cSupplemental Digital Content is available for this article. Direct URL citations are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal's website, www.lww.com/international-journal-of-surgery
- dOxford University Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
- eImperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
- fGuy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London
- gHarley Clinic Group, 10 Harley Street
- hPublished online ■ ■
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The Preferred Reporting Of CasE Series in Surgery (PROCESS) guidelines were developed in 2016 in order to improve the reporting quality of surgical case series. Since its inception, it has been updated twice, in 2018 and 2020, and has been cited over 1000 times. PROCESS guidelines have enjoyed great acceptance within the surgical research community. Our aim is to update the PROCESS guidelines in order to maintain its applicability in the field of surgical research. METHODS: A PROCESS 2023 steering group was created. By working in collaboration, members of this group came up with proposals to update the PROCESS 2020 guidelines. These proposals were presented to an expert panel of researchers, who in turn scrutinised these proposals and decided whether they should become part of PROCESS 2023 guidelines or not, through a Delphi consensus exercise. RESULTS: A total of 38 people participated in the development of PROCESS 2023 guidelines. The majority of items received a score between 7 and 9 from greater than 70% of the participants, indicating consensus with the proposed changes to those items. However, two items (3c and 6a) received a score between 7 and 9 from less than 70% of the participants, indicating a lack of consensus with the proposed changes to those items. Those items will remain unchanged. DISCUSSION: The updated PROCESS 2023 guidelines are presented with an aim to continue improving the reporting quality of case series in surgery.
TL;DRThe updated PROCESS 2023 guidelines are presented with an aim to continue improving the reporting quality of case series in surgery. (Semantic Scholar)

