Donatelli 2006.

Methods	RCT Approved by the ethics committee and written informed consent obtained Setting: Canada Funding: charity
Participants	16 patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery Exclusion criteria were more than 20% loss of body weight in the past 6 months, evidence of metastatic disease, severe cardiac and respiratory diseases, diabetes with albumin < 35 g/L and anaemia (haemoglobin < 100 g/L)
Interventions	Treatment group: thoracic (T9‐T11) epidural loaded with 15 mL of 0,5% bupivacaine for a sensory block from T4 to S5, maintained with 5 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine every hour during surgery followed by an infusion of 0.1% bupivacaine plus fentanyl 2 mcg/mL at 8 to 15 mL/h for 48 hours after surgery (n = 8) Control group: IV patient‐controlled analgesia with morphine (n = 8) General anaesthesia for all participants
Outcomes	Pain scores at rest and on movement (coughing) at 24 and 48 hours
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	"using a computer‐generated randomization schedule"
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not mentioned
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
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All results reported
Other bias	Low risk	Groups well balanced except for age; participants in the epidural group were older (65 vs 59 years)