Table 1.

Characteristics of principal trials

	Everitt et al, 20066	Rietveld et al, 20054	Rose et al, 20055
Setting	UK Primary care	The Netherlands Primary care	UK Primary care
Participants	307 adults and children	181 adults	326 children aged 6 months to 12 years
Study design	Open, factorial, randomised control trial	Double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial	Double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial
Intervention	Immediate chloramphenicol eye drops versus delayed chloramphenicol eye drops versus no eye drops	Fusidic acid gel versus placebo	Chloramphenicol 0.5% versus placebo
Determination of cure at day 7	Patient assessed cure as recorded in a daily diary	GP assessed at day 7	Parent assessed cure as recorded in a daily diary