Surgical research without randomized trials has been compared to a comic opera.

Ways to integrate trials into clinical practice have been proposed, but trial and statistical methods may need to be adapted to suit the needs of surgical care research.

We introduce this Science Forum series with a first paper on Kaplan-Meier curves and survival analyses in preventive surgical trials such as a recent trial on bypass surgery.

In a second paper we examine the reliability of study endpoint adjudication in a pragmatic trial on brain AVMs.

This work did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Authors have no relevant interests to declare.

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