Test meta-analyses for stability

EDITOR–An editorial on meta-analysis that one of us wrote1 noted in passing two difficulties with a paper by Le Lorier et al that showed apparent discrepancies between results of meta-analyses and of individual trials.2 Le Lorier and Gregoire have written to counter those criticisms,3 but we think that they have missed the salient methodological issues. Le Lorier et al defined a negative trial as “one in which the treatment resulted in an equal or worse …