Table 2.

Results of the RCTs evaluating the use of topical metronidazole for post-haemorrhoidectomy pain

Study	PO day	VAS scores of the topical metronidazole group (mean ± SD)	VAS scores of the oral metronidazole group (mean ± SD)	VAS scores of the placebo group (mean ± SD)	p
Nicholson, 2004	1				> 0.05
	7	3.4 ± 0.4	–	6.3 ± 0.05	0.002
	14	1 ± 0.4	–	3.2 ± 0.7	0.02
	28				> 0.05
Ala, 2007	1	Qualitative data only	–	Qualitative data only	0.04
	2		–		< 0.01
	7		–		0.03
	14		–		< 0.01
Neogi, 2018					(ANOVA test)
	1	6.20 ± 0.76	4.30 ± 0.65	4.90 ± 0.71	0.006
	3	2.80 ± 0.76	3.15 ± 0.81	3.85 ± 0.74	0.000
	7	1.55 ± 0.51	1.55 ± 0.68	2.30 ± 0.57	0.0001
Razzaq, 2020	1	6.89 ± 1.76	–	6.42 ± 1.38	> 0.05
	3	3.96 ± 1.28	–	2.74 ± 1.06	0.024
	5	3.08 ± 0.24	–	2.14 ± 0.26	0.01
Abbas, 2020	7	3.04 ± 1.41	4.05 ± 1.92	–	0.01
Xia, 2022	3 (Generalized mixed linear model 0–7)	6.31 ± 0.39	5.84 ± 0.73	–	0.38