Searching for Indirect Evidence and Extending the Network of Studies for Network Meta-Analysis: Case Study in Venous Thromboembolic Events Prevention Following Elective Total Knee Replacement Surgery

No standard methodology is currently recommended by NICE to identify the most relevant network of studies for NMA. Our study showed that optimizing the identification of studies for NMA can extend the evidence base for analysis and reduce the uncertainty in relative effectiveness estimates. Although in our example network extensions did not affect the acceptability of available treatments in VTE prevention based on cost-effectiveness results, it may in other applications.