Table 1.

Characteristics of the 22 identified surgical IPDMAs

Author and year	RCTs ( n )	Patients ( n )	Patients	Intervention	Comparison	Outcome	Subgroups ( n )	Overall effect estimate	Significant effect estimates in subgroups ( n / N )
Jorgenson et al., 2007 [19]	7	2,091	Women with cervical insufficiency	Cervical cerclage	Expectant management, no cerclage	Primary	Obstetric history, cervical length (2)	NS	0/2
						Pregnancy loss or neonatal death before discharge from hospital
						Secondary
						Preterm delivery and maternal morbidity
Hlatky et al., 2009 [20]	10	7,812	Patients with multivessel coronary disease	Coronary artery bypass graft	Percutaneous coronary intervention	All-cause mortality	Age, sex, diabetes, smoking, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, PVD, stability of symptoms, previous MI, heart failure, LV function, no. of diseased vessel, proximal LAD, balloon vs.stent (14)	NS	2/14
Daniels et al., 2010 [21]	5	862	Patients with chronic pelvic pain	Laparoscopic uterosacral nerve ablation (LUNA)	No LUNA	Derived measure of worst pain level experienced	Presence of visual pathology, site of pain, age, parity (4)	NS	1/4
Burzotta et al., 2009 [22]	11	2,686	Patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)	Percutaneous coronary intervention with thrombectomy	Standard percutaneous coronary intervention	Primary	Manual vs. non-manual thrombectomy devices, diabetes, primary vs. rescue PCI, treated vs. non-treated with IIb/IIIa-inhibitors, ischemic time, infarct-related artery, pre-PCI TIMI flow (7)	S	1/7
						All-cause mortality
						Secondary
						Survival free from MI, TLR, or TVR, major adverse coronary events (MACE), death+MI
Carotid Stenting Trialists’Collaboration, 2010 [23]	3	3,433	Patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis	Carotid stenting	Endarterectomy	Primary	Age, sex, diabetes, hypertension, SBP, hypercholesterolaemia, smoking, coronary heart disease, peripheral artery disease, most recent ipsilateral ischemic event, history of stroke, degree of ipsilateral ischemic stroke, contralateral severe carotid stenosis or occlusion, treatment within 14 days, patients recruited per center, center recruitment rate (16)	S	1/16
						Any stroke or death
						Secondary
						Disabling stroke or death, all-cause death, any stroke, myocardial infarction, severe local hematoma, severe wound infection
Middleton et al., 2010 [24]	17	2,814	Patients with heavy menstrual bleeding	Hysterectomy, endometrial destruction (1st & 2nd generation), levonorgestrel releasing intra-uterine system (MIRENA)	Endometrial destruction (1st & 2nd generation), levonorgestrel releasing intra-uterine system (MIRENA)	Dissatisfaction rates	Uterine cavity length, age, presence of fibroids/polyps, parity, baseline bleeding score (5)	S	1/5
Mercado et al., 2005 [25]	4	3,051	Patients with multi-system coronary artery disease	Percutaneous coronary intervention with multiple stenting	Coronary artery bypass graft	Primary	Age, gender, diabetes, smoking, number of diseased vessels (5)	NS	0/5
						Composite of death, MI, or stroke at 1 year FU
						Secondary
						Death, composite of death or MI, repeat revascularization, composite of death, MI, stroke, and repeat revalscularization
Boersma et al., 2006 [26]	22	6,767	Patients with acute myocardial infarction	PCI	Fibrinolysis	All-cause mortality	Age, sex, diabetes, prior MI, MI location, heart rate, SBP, fibrinolytic agent, front-loaded tPA, site volume (11)	S	1/11
Timmer et al., 2007 [27]	19	6,315	Patients with acute myocardial infarction	PCI	Fibrinolysis	Death, recurrent MI, death or recurrent MI, stroke	Diabetes (1)	S	0/1
de Boer et al., 2010 [28]	22	6,767	Patients with acute myocardial infarction	Primary PCI	Fibrinolysis	Primary	Age (1)	S	0/1
						All-cause mortality
						Secondary reMI, stroke, composite of all-cause mortality or reMI, composite of all-cause mortality, reMI, or stroke
de Boer et al., 2011 [29]	22	6,767	Patients with acute myocardial infarction	Primary PCI	Fibrinolysis	All-cause mortality	High-risk patients (1)	S	0/1
Fox et al., 2010 [30]	3	5,467	Patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction	Routine invasive strategy	Selective invasive strategy	Primary	High-risk groups based on baseline characteristics (1)	S	1/1
						Composite of CV death or non-fatal MI
						Secondary
						All-cause death, non-fatal MI alone
Damman et al., 2012 [31]	3	5,467	Patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction	Routine invasive strategy	Selective invasive strategy	Primary	Age (1)	S	1/1
						Composite of CV death or non-fatal MI, CV death, MI
Damman et al., 2012 [32]	3	5,467	Patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction	Routine invasive strategy	Selective invasive strategy	All-cause mortality	Procedure-related MI, spontaneous MI (2)	S	1/2
Biau et al., 2009 [33]	6	423	Patients with symptomatic unilateral anterior cruciate ligament injury	Reconstruction with patellar tendon autograft	Reconstruction with hamstring tendon autograft	Primary	Gender, age at surgery, trial effect (3)	S	2/3
						Positive pivot-shift test Secondary
						Positive Lachman test
Rovers et al., 2005 [34]	7	1,234	Children with otitis media with effusion	Short-term ventilation tubes	Watchful waiting	Mean time spent with effusion, hearing, language development	Hearing level at baseline, history of acute otitis media, upper respiratory infections, attending day care, socioeconomic status, siblings, season, history of breastfeeding, parental smoking (9)	NS	2/9
Salerno et al., 2007 [35]	4	305	Cirrhotic patients with refractory ascites	Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS)	Paracentesis	Primary	NA	S	NA
						Death from any cause before LT
						Secondary
						Liver-related death
Staples et al., 2011 [36]	2	209	Patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures	Vertebroplasty	Sham	Scores for pain and function	Onset of pain, pain scores at baseline (2)	NS	0/2
McCormack et al., 2003 [37]	25	4,165	Patients with clinical diagnosis of groin hernia for whom surgical management was judged appropriate	Laparoscopic repair	Open repair	Duration of operation, ‘opposite’ method initiated, conversion, hematoma, seroma, wound/superficial infection, mesh/deep infection, port site hernia, vascular injury, visceral injury, length of hospital stay, time to return to usual activities, persisting pain, persisting numbness, hernia recurrence, known death within 30 days of surgery	NA	S	NA
				(Transabdominal preperitoneal repair (TAPP) or totally extraperitoneal repair (TEP))
Scott et al., 2002 [38]	11	3,347	Patients with clinical diagnosis of groin hernia for whom surgical management was judged appropriate	Mesh technique	Non-mesh technique	Duration of operation, ’opposite’ method initiated, conversion, hematoma, seroma, wound/superficial infection, serious complications, length of postoperative hospital stay, time to return to usual activities, persisting pain, persisting numbness, hernia recurrence, known death	NA	S	NA
EU Hernia Trialists Collaboration, 2002 [39]	35	6,901	Patients with clinical diagnosis of groin hernia for whom surgical management was judged appropriate	Laparoscopic repair, mesh methods	Open repair, non-mesh methods	Hernia recurrence, persisting pain	NA	S	NA
Gregson et al., 2012 [40]	8	2,186	Patients with spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral hemorrhage	Surgery	Conservative treatment	Unfavorable outcome	Location of hematoma, time from event, age, Glascow Coma Score, volume of hematoma (5)	NA	4/5