Rockemann 1997.

Methods	RCT Approved by the ethics committee Setting: Germany Funding: unspecified
Participants	62 patients undergoing abdominal surgery (gastrointestinal mainly) Exclusion criteria were allergy to 1 of the substances used, age > 65 years, long‐term opioid or corticosteroid use, coagulation disorder and systemic infection
Interventions	Treatment group: thoracic epidural analgesia (T7‐T8 to T10‐T11, catheter introduced 5 to 7 cm passed the needle tip, median approach) with bupivacaine 0.25% and sufentanil 2 mcg/mL (0.05 mL/kg; lockout time 10 minutes) (n = 31) Control group: IV PCA with morphine 2 mg, lockout time 10 minutes (n = 31) General anaesthesia with propofol, sufentanil, nitrous oxide, enflurane and pancuronium. To increase intestinal motility, participants received metoclopramide 10 mg 3 times daily from postoperative day 1, and prostigmine 1 mg as a short infusion from postoperative day 3. Duration of pain treatment was 101 ± 3 hours
Outcomes	Time to first faeces Pain scores (0 to 10) at rest and on coughing (taken as on movement) at 24, 48 and 72 hours after surgery Length of hospital stay Costs
Notes	Addiitonal data provided by study authors
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	"randomization table"
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 provided
Other bias	Low risk	Groups well balanced