Corwin 2005.
| Study characteristics | ||
| Methods | Parallel randomised trial Study conducted between July 2002 and June 2003. |
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| Participants | Setting: New Zealand Patients with cellulitis Number recruited: treatment: 98, control: 96 Ages, mean (SD): T: 54.6 (20.6), C: 48.4 (19) European: T: 77/98 (79%), C: 78/96 (81%) Maori: T: 10/98 (10%), C: 5/96 (5%) Pacific: T: 2/98 (2%), C: 1/96 (1%) Other: T: 9/98 (9%), C: 13/96 (12%) |
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| Interventions | Hospital at home admission avoidance from the emergency department. Run by Pegasus Health, an independent practitioner's association for 230 GPs in Christchurch, New Zealand. Care provided by GP and community care nursing staff. Patients required IV antibiotics for cellulitis. |
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| Outcomes | Advancement of cellulitis, readmission, days on IV antibiotics, functional outcomes (SF‐36), patient satisfaction | |
| Notes | Follow up: 3 and 6 days Funding: Pegasus Health Conflicts of interest: none declared Ethical approval: local ethical committee |
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| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Randomisation list produced by SAS code |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | Telephone randomisation service |
| Baseline outcome measurements (selection bias) | Low risk | Baseline outcome measurements done prior to intervention for functional outcomes; no relevant differences found |
| Baseline characteristics (selection bias) | Low risk | Baseline characteristics of treatment and control groups are reported and similar for main characteristics |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | Blinding of participants and personnel not possible |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Subjective outcomes | Unclear risk | Unclear risk for pain, functional and physical health (SF‐36), and satisfaction |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Objective outcomes | Low risk | Low risk for advancement of cellulitis |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | 3 from each group excluded at follow‐up |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Unclear risk | Insufficient information to allocate low or high risk |