Table 1. Evidence table showing the characteristics of the included studies.

Study	Technique		Sample Size		Location	Age		Allocation	Data Collection	Scoring	Follow-up
	TT	TE	TT	TE		TT	TE
Hultcrantz1999[13]	CO2 laser	CO2 laser	21	20	Sweden	6±1.5	6±1.5	randomized	prospective	7	12m
Hultcrantz 2005[17]	CO2 laser	CO2 laser	21	20	Sweden	3–9	3–9	randomized	prospective	7	72m
Ericsson 2006[19]	Surgitrone	cold knife blunt dissection	49	43	Sweden	8.7±3.6	9.8±3.4	randomized	prospective	8	10days
Rwichel 2007[15]	CO2 laser	blunt dissection	49	64	Germany	4.5	4.9	non randomized	prospective	9	24m
Ericsson 2009[12]	Surgitrone	cold knife blunt dissection	35	32	Sweden	4.5–5.5	4.5–5.5	randomized	prospective	8	6m
Wood 2011[18]	Coblation	Coblation	63	118	Australia	5	5.7	non randomized	prospective	7	24m
Cantarella 2012[11]	Gyrus microdebrider	cold knife blunt dissection	14	15	Italy	5.1±1.7	5.2±1.8	non randomized	prospective	7	6m
Moriniere 2013[14]	Ring electrode	bipolar scissors	88	105	France	4.88 ±2.6	4.75±2.37	non randomized	prospective	8	12m
Dai 2014 [16]	Coblation	Coblation	37	20	China	5	4.6	randomized	prospective	7	3m
Zhang 2014 [6]	Coblation	Coblation	82	133	China	4.8	6.4	nonrandomized	prospective	8	64.3m