Evidence of bias affecting the interpretation of the results of local anaesthetic nerve blocks when assessing lameness in horses

Eighteen observers were influenced to different extents in the grades of lameness they allocated to eight horses by whether they knew that a nerve block had been administered; on a scale from 0 to 10 the mean difference in grade allocated once the observer knew a horse had been nerve-blocked was inc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Veterinary record 2006-09, Vol.159 (11), p.346-349
Main Authors: Arkell, M., Archer, R. M., Guitian, F. J., May, S. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Horse Diseases - diagnosis
Horse Diseases - pathology
Horses
lameness
Lameness, Animal - diagnosis
Lameness, Animal - pathology
Nerve Block - methods
Nerve Block - veterinary
Observer Variation
Reproducibility of Results
Sensitivity and Specificity
Severity of Illness Index
Students
Videotape Recording
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Eighteen observers were influenced to different extents in the grades of lameness they allocated to eight horses by whether they knew that a nerve block had been administered; on a scale from 0 to 10 the mean difference in grade allocated once the observer knew a horse had been nerve-blocked was increased by 0·4. The consistency of the assessments made by the individual observers was good, with a an average of 0·6 of a grade difference when grading the same horse on two occasions. The agreement between the assessments of four orthopaedic experts was reasonable (±1 grade), but significantly poorer for four non-experts and 10 final year veterinary students.
ISSN:0042-4900
2042-7670
DOI:10.1136/vr.159.11.346