Table 4.

Main findings for the studies included in the meta-analysis. ES: emergency surgery; FFP: fresh frozen plasma; RCT: randomized controlled trial; SBTS: stent as a bridge to surgery; SSI: surgical site infection.

Reference	Significant difference	No significant difference	Notes
Alcantara et al.	SBTS: reduced anastomotic leak rate and overall morbidity for SBTS	Mortality, median hospital stay, SSI	Trial stopped prematurely
Arezzo et al.	SBTS: decreased stoma rate, increased total length of stay	Morbidity, median operative time, oncologic outcome at 36 months
Cheung et al.	SBTS: reduced anastomotic leak rate and stoma rate, increased rate of one-stage procedure	Median cumulative hospital stay, chest infection, intra-abdominal sepsis
Ghazal et al.	SBTS: reduced mean operative time, necessity of blood and FFP transfusion, SSI	Median total length of stay
Ho et al.	SBTS: reduced need for intraoperative bowel decompression	Mortality, morbidity, median operative time, medial total length of stay
Pirlet et al.		In-hospital mortality, morbidity, stoma rate, anastomotic leak	Trial stopped prematurely
van Hooft et al.	SBTS: reduced initial stoma rate but increased stoma-related complications and increased morbidity at 30 days (interim analysis)	Global health status, mortality	Trial stopped prematurely