Giannoni 1999.

Methods	Randomized prospective study Written informed consent obtained Setting: Italy Funding: unspecified
Participants	50 ASA 2 to 4 patients undergoing gastrointestinal abdominal surgery for colorectal cancer
Interventions	Treatment group: continuous epidural thoraco‐lumbar anaesthesia for 96 hours with bupivacaine 0.125% and morphine during the first 48 hours, and bupivacaine 0.125% only in the following 48 hours (n = 25) Control group: continuous analgesic intravenous therapy for 96 hours (with morphine and ketorolac in the first 48 hours and ketorolac only in the following 48 hours) (n = 25). General anaesthesia for surgery for all participants with thiopental, fentanyl, nitrous oxide, isoflurane and pancuronium (Group general anaesthesia) or atracurium (Group general anaesthesia plus epidural)
Outcomes	Time to first faeces Postoperative analgesia VAS scores at 6, 24, 48 and 72 hours. Results at 72 hours for one group were 0 for the mean and 0 for SD; a value of 0.001 for SD was entered for analysis purposes. At 96 hours, the result was 0 for all participants (not included in the analysis) Vomiting (during hospital stay) Anastomotic leak Length of hospital stay
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	"randomized", no details
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