Poor quality of surgical outcome reporting persists in medical literature

Out of 627 articles reporting surgical outcomes, only 1 met all quality criteria, while 356 articles fulfilled less than half. Cumulative morbidity burden and patient-reported outcomes were commonly missing. Higher impact medical journals had better reporting compared to surgical journals. There has been little improvement in the quality of outcome reporting over the past 20 years. Standardized outcome reporting is urgently needed to improve patient care and guidelines.