Can We Always Rely on “Evidence-Based Medicine”?

Currently, the evidence-based medicine, EBM, has become essential in every field of medicine and many clinical guidelines have been developed based on the high-quality evidence. Such evidence has usually classified into 6 levels according to the quality of the studies. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials is considered as the highest level of evidence. The meta-analysis, however, has several pit-falls that we should keep in mind. The pit-falls are Simpson’s paradox, the selection bias, the publication bias, and the geographical bias. In the clinical setting of otolaryngology, it is not always possible to obtain a high level of evidence for conventional clinical treatments such as myringotomy, sinus puncture and aspiration, aeration of the Eustachian tube for the treatment of otitis media with effusion, and so on. Since these treatment modalities have no high-level of evidence, should we therefore stop performing them? No. We should have a further look at these treatments as “good practice points (GPP)”. Otolaryngological specialists should play an important role in combining high-quality evidence and GPP to seek the optimum treatment approach for each patient.