2025 AAOS Annual Meeting: Reporting Bias is Highly Prevalent in Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Reconstruction

Fifty-seven systematic reviews and meta-analyses evaluating MPFLR were included in this study assessing the presence of reporting bias in the form of spin. Pooled outcomes of interest included frequency and type of spin, methodological quality using AMSTAR 2, and associations with publication characteristics. Spin was identified in 89.5% of studies, with misleading reporting and misleading interpretation as the dominant categories. The presence of spin was significantly associated with lower AMSTAR 2 scores (p=0.0194) and higher journal impact factors (p=0.0128). These findings suggest that spin is highly prevalent and is more frequent in studies of lower methodological quality and those published in higher impact journals.