Alpaslan 2010.

Methods	RCT Informed consent not mentioned Setting: Turkey Funding: unspecified
Participants	36 patients undergoing lower abdominal surgery
Interventions	Treatment group: lumbar epidural analgesia started before induction with 10 mL of 0.25 bupivacaine followed by an infusion at 4 mL/h for 24 hours (n = 16) Control group: n = 20 General anaesthesia for all participants
Outcomes	Time to first flatus Time to first faeces
Notes	Conference abstract Lack of details on results (gastrointestinal functions normalized at similar times in the 2 groups (P value > 0.05)), therefore not extractable to satisfy our objectives. No address available to contact study authors
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	"divided randomly", no details
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not reported
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not mentioned
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not mentioned
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No loss to follow‐up mentioned
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All results provided
Other bias	Unclear risk	Limited information on group characteristics