Evidence-appraisal glossary
Node-Splitting
Node-splitting is a check in network meta-analysis that separates the direct evidence for a treatment comparison from the indirect evidence and tests whether they agree. A meaningful disagreement flags local inconsistency in the network.
Also called: side-splitting.
For any pair of treatments connected by both a direct trial and an indirect path, node-splitting recomputes the effect twice, once using only the head to head data and once using only the rest of the network, then compares them. It localizes where a network breaks down rather than giving a single global verdict, which helps reviewers decide whether a particular comparison can be trusted. Persistent disagreement usually points back to a violation of transitivity among the contributing studies.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.