About the Authors

Aria Fallah

aria.fallah@mail.utoronto.ca

Affiliations Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Gordon H. Guyatt

Affiliations Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

O. Carter Snead III

Affiliations Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, Hospital for Sick Children, Research Institute, Toronto, Canada, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Shanil Ebrahim

Affiliation Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

George M. Ibrahim

Affiliations Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Alireza Mansouri

Affiliation Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Deven Reddy

Affiliations Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Stephen D. Walter

Affiliation Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Abhaya V. Kulkarni

Affiliations Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Hospital for Sick Children, Research Institute, Toronto, Canada

Mohit Bhandari

Affiliations Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, Division of Orthopedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Laura Banfield

Affiliation Health Sciences Library, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Neera Bhatnagar

Affiliation Health Sciences Library, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Shuli Liang

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, First Affiliated Hospital of PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China

Federica Teutonico

Affiliation Department of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

Jianxiang Liao

Affiliation Department of Pediatric Neurology, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, China

James T. Rutka

Affiliations Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Hospital for Sick Children, Research Institute, Toronto, Canada

Competing Interests

Dr. Bhandari receives research funding from Smith and Nephew, Stryker, DePuy, Amgen and Moximed. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. All other authors report no disclosures.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AF GHG OCS SDW AVK MB LB NB JTR. Performed the experiments: AF SE GMI AM DR SL FT JL. Analyzed the data: AF GHG SE SDW AVK. Wrote the paper: AF GHG OCS SDW AVK MB SL FT JL JTR.