Table 3.
Study | Random- isation | Investigator blinding | Estimate of sample size | Intention to treat analysis | Poynard’s quality score (%) | Pagliaro’s quality score (%) |
Combination therapy vs sclerotherapy | ||||||
Westaby et al[36] | Yes | No | No | No | 31 | 35 |
Jensen et al[37] | Yes | Double blinded | No | No | 65 | 67 |
Bertoni et al[38] | Yes | Single blinded | No | No | 54 | 44 |
Gerunda et al[39] | Yes | No | No | No | 19 | 12 |
Lundell et al[40] | Yes | Single blinded | No | Yes | 50 | 61 |
Kanazawa et al[32] | Yes | No | No | No | 19 | 18 |
Vinel et al[41] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 73 | 43 |
Acharya et al[42] | Yes | Double blinded | Yes | Yes | 92 | 96 |
Avgerinos et al[43] | Yes | Single blinded | Yes | Yes | 77 | 83 |
Villanueva et al[33] | Yes | No | No | No | 55 | 67 |
Vickers et al[44] | Yes | Single blinded | Yes | Yes | 83 | 74 |
Elsayed et al[34] | Yes | No | No | No | 50 | 31 |
Benedeto-Stojanov et al[45] | Yes | NA | NA | NA | 29 | 8 |
Dowidar et al[35] | Yes | Single blinded | No | No | 54 | 50 |
Combination therapy vs banding ligation | ||||||
Abdel-Rahim et al[46] | Yes | NA | NA | NA | 8 | 17 |
Lo et al[12] | Yes | Single blinded | Yes | Yes | 81 | 85 |
de la Peña et al[13] | Yes | No | Yes | No | 69 | 82 |
NA: Not available.