Fawcett 1997.

Methods	Parallel RCT Ethics committee: approved by the Local Research Ethics Committee Informed consents: written informed consents obtained Site: St. George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, London, UK, and Queen's Medical Centre, University of Nottigham, Nottingham, UK Setting: university hospital Dates of data collection: unspecified Funding: unspecified Registration: unspecified
Participants	16 male participants; mean age: 61.5 years; sex distribution: 16 males Inclusion criteria Scheduled for elective CABG Exclusion criteria Aspirin within 10 days Receiving warfarin or heparin or with abnormal coagulation study results BMI > 30 kg/m² Neurological disease Poor LVEF Reversible airway obstruction
Interventions	Intervention Epidural analgesia (N = 8) Comparator Systemic analgesia (N = 8) Premedication: morphine and hyoscine Induction: fentanyl, thiopentone, and suxamethonium Maintenance: nitrous oxide, pancuronium, and midazolam Surgery: CABG with CPB
Outcomes	Relevant to this review Tracheal extubation Pain scores Haemodynamic variables Others Catecholamine blood levels Lung function tests
Notes	Correspondence: letter sent 16 March 2018; no reply Conflict of interest: not reported DOI: n/a
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Quote: "randomly assigned"; no details
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not reported
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not reported
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not reported
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No loss to follow‐up
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All results reported
Other bias	Unclear risk	No failed epidural Groups well balanced except for CPB time: 107 minutes for TEA vs 78 minutes for no epidural