ArticleArchives of medical science : AMS2012
Lunar phase does not influence perioperative complications in total hip arthroplasty.
Article in Archives of medical science : AMS, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Superstition in arthroplasty: does a suspicious size or surgery date have a higher revision rate? A Dutch arthroplasty register study.Acta orthopaedica · 2025Article
- No influence of moon phases on emergency trauma admission.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2025Article
- Are Postoperative Complications of Joint Replacement Correlated With the Phase of the Moon? An Analysis of Data From the Medicare Registry.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2023Article
- Moon and Health: Myth or Reality?Cureus · 2023Review
- Moonlight surgery: no influence of moon phase or Friday 13th on outcomes of total knee arthroplasty.Archives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery · 2023Article
- The sociocultural effects on orthopedic surgeries in Taiwan.PloS one · 2018Article
- The Influence of Lunar Phases on Complications in Cataract Surgery: An Analysis of 16,965 Patients.Journal of ophthalmology · 2017Article
- A dental myth bites the dust--no observable relation between the incidence of dental abscess and the weather and lunar phase: an ecological study.BMC oral health · 2015Article
- Howling at the moon? The effect of lunar phases on post-surgical pain outcome.British journal of pain · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionLunar calendars, publishing recommendations for daily life, are gaining more and more attention in Germany, where 10.5% of the population believe in lunar effects on disease. A widespread and often heard belief is that a full moon has the most negative effects on surgical outcome. The present study evaluates the effects of lunar phase on perioperative complications in total hip arthroplasty. MATERIAL AND
methodsWe performed a retrospective study with 305 patients being provided with a primary hip arthroplasty. To identify possible influences of the lunar phase on perioperative complications we investigated data such as operation length, blood loss and course of C-reactive protein that were collected during the patients' stay in the hospital and allocated them to moon illumination.
resultsThere were no significant differences in all collected data concerning the lunar phase (p > 0.05). Although not statistically significant, there were fewer operations during the full moon phase.
conclusionsTherefore there is no evidence that lunar phase has an effect on perioperative complications in total hip arthroplasty. Fewer, though not significantly fewer, operations were performed during the full moon phase. Although this was not a prospective randomized trial, the statistical magnitude of the results does not support any recommendations for scheduling patients for total hip arthroplasty at any particular day of the lunar phase.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.