for the main comparison.
| Fibrin glue compared with sutures for primary pterygium | ||||||
|
Patient or population: individuals with pterygium Settings: hospital or outpatients Intervention: fibrin glue Comparison: sutures | ||||||
| Outcomes | Illustrative comparative risks* (95% CI) | Relative effect (95% CI) | No of eyes (studies) | Certainty of the evidence (GRADE) | Comments | |
| Assumed risk | Corresponding risk | |||||
| Sutures | Fibrin glue | |||||
|
Recurrence of pterygium (follow‐up 2 to 24 months) |
100 per 1000 | 47 per 1000 (27 to 82) | RR 0.47 (0.27 to 0.82) | 762 (12 RCTs) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ low1 2 | Large variability in duration of follow‐up |
| Occurrence of complication | 70 per 1000 | 134 per 1000 (85 to 211) | RR 1.92 (1.22 to 3.02) | 673 (11 RCTs) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ low1 2 | |
| Operating time | The mean operating time ranged across control groups from 27 to 67 minutes | The mean operating time in the intervention groups was17.0 minutes less (from 20.6 minutes less to 13.5 minutes less) | 614 (9 RCTs) |
⊕⊕⊝⊝ low1 3 | ||
| *The basis for the assumed risk (e.g. the median control group risk across studies) is provided in footnotes. The corresponding risk (and its 95% confidence interval) is based on the assumed risk in the comparison group and the relative effect of the intervention (and its 95% CI). CI: Confidence interval; RR: Risk Ratio; Std: standardised | ||||||
| GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High‐certainty: further research is very unlikely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect Moderate‐certainty: further research is likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate Low‐certainty: further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate Very low‐certainty: we are very uncertain about the estimate | ||||||
1Downgraded 1 level for risk of bias due to study limitations, in particular generation of allocation sequence, allocation concealment, and incomplete outcome data. 2.Downgraded 1 level for imprecision as there were relatively few events. 3 Downgraded 1 level for inconsistency (I2 = 96%) although all studies favoured fibrin glue.