Table 1.

Quality assessment of the included studies checklist from questions from National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) 1–8: (1) Is case series collected in more than one center? (2) Is the hypothesis/aim/objective of the study clearly described? (3) Are the inclusion and exclusion criteria clearly reported? (4) Is there a clear definition of the outcomes reported? (5) Were data collected prospectively? (6) Is there an explicit statement that patients were recruited consecutively? (7) Are the main findings of the study clearly described? (8) Are outcomes stratified? Abbreviations: ABS = abstract; NA = not applicable (abstract); PCS = prospective case series; RCS = retrospective case series.

Authors	Study type	Study design	Year	Location	Quality assessment of included studies
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Lai et al. [56]	RCS	Development	2015	Taiwan	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Ito et al. [66]	RCS	Development	2014	Japan	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Wu et al. [57]	PCS	Development Validation	2014	Taiwan	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Luo et al. [35]	RCS	Development Validation	2013	China	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lee et al. [31]	RCS	Development Validation	2013	Korea	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Basoglu and Tasbakan [15]	RCS	Development Validation	2012	Turkey	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Tofts et al. [58]	RCS	Development Validation	2012	USA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Schiza et al. [44]	RCS	Development Validation	2011	Greece	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Anees [63]	PCS	Validation	2010	USA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Choi et al. [19]	RCS	Development Validation	2010	Korea	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Akahoshi et al. [13]	PCS	Development Validation	2009	Japan	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Chuang et al. [20]	PCS	Development Validation	2008	Taiwan	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
El Solh et al. [59]	RCS	Development Validation	2007	USA	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Loredo et al. [34]	PCS	Development Validation	2007	USA	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Skomro et al. [47]	RCS	Development Validation	2007	Canada	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Torre-Bouscoulet et al. [50, 51]	RCS	Development Validation	2007 2009	Mexico	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Panagou et al. [64]	ABS	Development	2005	Greece	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Rowley et al. [43]	RCS	Development Validation	2005	USA	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Stradling et al. [48, 49]	RCS	Development Validation	2004	Britain	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Lin et al. [32]	PCS	Development Validation	2003	Taiwan	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Akashiba et al. [14]	PCS	Development Validation	2001	Japan	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Sériès [45]	PCS	Development Validation	2000	Canada	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nahmias et al. [65]	ABS	Development	1995	USA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Teschler et al. [60]	PCS	Development Validation	1995	Germany	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Hoheisel and Teschler [61]	ABS	Development	1994	Germany	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Miljeteig and Hoffstein [38]	PCS	Development Validation	1993	Canada	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes