Matanhelia 1995.

Methods	Full text. 1989‐1991. No stated objective. States randomly allocated; no details. Statistical methods: Log rank x2
Participants	UK. 51 men with anterior urethral stricture. Age: not stated. Exlcusions: not stated.
Interventions	Control: optical urethrotomy (n = 21) Treatment: optical urethrotomy then intermittent self‐dilatation for 3 months (n = 23)
Outcomes	PROs: no Health economic: no Adverse events: Zero UTI intermittent self‐dilatation arm. Quote 'none developed urinary tract infections.' Acceptability: No objective assessment. Quote 'patients generally found the procedure acceptable.' Recurrence rate: Number of men with recurrent urethral stricture 12 months after optical urethrotomy. Definition of recurrence: flow rate < 12 ml/s. Control: 8/21 Treatment: 6/23 Time to recurrence: no
Notes	intermittent self‐dilatation programme: twice daily for 2 weeks, daily for 3 weeks, twice weekly for 3 weeks, weekly for 4 weeks. Withdrawals: 7 (6 DNA, 1 death); not stratified by arm. Subgroups: First or recurrent stricture.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Quote: 'Patients were randomly allocated.' No further details.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	High risk	Not described. Probably not done.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Not stated. Probably not done.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	6/51 patients entered into the trial did not attend follow‐up, allocation unspecified. Sufficient to impact on intervention effect.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	No pre‐stated objective. UTI data incompletely reported.
Funding/COI	Unclear risk	Not stated.