Table 2. Risk of bias of included studies.
Selection bias | Performance and detection bias | Attrition bias | Reporting bias | Other potential bias | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
study | risk | explanation | risk | explanation | risk | explanation | risk | explanation | risk | explanation | |
Oocyte-based review | Nakahara 2010 | U | Method of random allocation was not described. | H | Laboratory technicians were not blinded. | L | No loss of follow-up. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. |
Cruz 2011 | U | Method of random allocation was not described. | U | Blinding unclear. | L | No loss of follow-up. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. | |
Kirkegaard 2012 | L | Block randomization using random number from sealed envelopes. | L | Laboratory technicians were blinded. | H | Large proportion of oocytes dropped out after randomization. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. | |
Wu 2016 (Part B) | U | Method of random allocation was not described. | H | Laboratory technicians were not blinded. | L | No loss of follow-up. | H | Did nor report pregnancy or implantation. | L | None. | |
Woman-based review | Park 2015 | L | A web based randomization programme was used. | H | Laboratory technicians were not blinded. | L | Very small proportion of women dropped out. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. |
Wu 2016 (Part A) | L | Computer randomization was used. | H | Laboratory technicians were not blinded. | H | Large proportion of women dropped out after randomization. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. | |
Kahraman 2013 | L | A computer generated list was used. | H | Laboratory technicians were not blinded. | L | Small proportion of women dropped out and reasons were clearly stated. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. | |
Insua 2015 | H | Patient were able to request the intervention. | H | Patients were not blinded. | H | Loss of follow up was not balanced. | H | The authors did not report clinical pregnancy and the primary outcome (ongoing pregnancy) was not assessed as reported in the trial register | H | IVI was a part owner of and had a long-standing financial interest with Fertilitech which only recently was sold. Fertilitech is the firm that manufactures EmbryoScope | |
Matyas 2015 | H | Paired randomization by two envelopes, researchers were awared of allocation before enrollment. | H | Laboratory technicians were not blinded. | H | Large proportion of women (20/140) dropped out. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. | |
Goodman 2016 | L | A computer-generated random number sequence was used. | H | Laboratory technicians were not blinded. | H | Large proportion of women (52/287) dropped out. | L | All investigated outcomes were published. | L | None. |
L, low risk of bias; H, high risk of bias; U, unclear risk of bias.