PONE-D-21-11232

Comparative effectiveness of ultrasound-guided and anatomic-landmark percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Yan-Ren,

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

The authors have done good job in their manuscript, as reflected in the reviewers' comments. I agree that for this paper to be published, a thorough English editing is needed, by a professional English Editor.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Dear editor and authors- thanks you for considering me to review this paper.

This work thoroughly covers the knowledge regarding UPT vs. LT

a few minor issues to be considered:

1. safety of BPT - in the introduction there is some concern regarding high ICP and high AW pressure with BPT. the BPT safety has been reported in other trials. regarding the high ICP- bronchoscopy is done in TBI patients for other indications as well and it is not clear from the reference if that is a consequence of insufficient sedation . as for high AW pressures - again- the high AW pressure in BPT is secondary to high resistance and so the relation to PNX is loose.

2. total tracheostomy placement time is considered in only 2 papers (the third was measured differently) and so the data are limited to conclude that UPT is not associated with time reduction, or the other way around .

Reviewer #2: This study is a systematic review and meta analysis comparing ultrasound guided percutaenous dilatation tracheostomy compared to anatomical landmark percutaenous dilatation tracheostomy.

The study was well planned and well executed.

There are several minor revisions I would suggest:

-While the English in the study is intelligible, the manuscript, and especially the discussion section would benefit from linguistic editting.

- Abstract :

Numbered references are not used in abstracts. Please revise.

- Results:

The font in figure 5 is too small, and it is lacking headlines.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Stavi, Dekel

Reviewer #2: Yes: Yael Shapira-Galitz

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Comparative effectiveness of ultrasound-guided and anatomic-landmark percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

PONE-D-21-11232R1

Dear Dr. Yan-Ren,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Oded Cohen

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

I wish to commend the authors for a very well written paper

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: Yes: Yael Shapira-Galitz