Cauraugh 2008

Methods	Randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment protocol orders Method of randomisation and allocation concealment not stated
Participants	16 participants Inclusion criteria: diagnosis of no more than 2 strokes, lower limit of 10° voluntary wrist/finger extension, absence of other neurological deficits, currently not participating in another rehabilitation programme
Interventions	Group 1 (8 participants): unilateral + EMG‐triggered neuromuscular stimulation Group 2 (8 participants): bilateral + EMG‐triggered neuromuscular stimulation Both groups completed 5 consecutive upper limb protocols For the purposes of this review we compared the first treatment protocol from each group (unilateral wrist/finger extension + stimulation with a 5:25 stimulation/rest schedule versus bilateral wrist/finger extension + stimulation with a 5:25 stimulation/rest schedule Each training session involved 90 successful movement trials; completed in 4 days of 90 minutes training per day over 2 weeks Consecutive treatment protocols were separated on average by 4 weeks of no rehabilitation All 5 treatment protocols were administered over 12‐month period Profession of individual(s) administrating training unclear
Outcomes	Primary outcome: functional movement of the upper limb: BBT Secondary outcome: motor impairment ‐ temporal outcomes: motor reaction time and total reaction time (motor reaction time selected); strength outcomes: sustained muscle contraction task ‐ maximal isometric contraction of wrist/finger extensors No suitable data were available for strength outcome Outcomes were recorded at the end of each intervention protocol (end of intervention period)
Notes	Data presented in paper in graph format: mean and SE for BBT Means estimated from graph and standard deviation calculated from estimated standard error to allow for inclusion in statistical pooling 2 review authors independently estimated the values from the graphs; the average of the 2 estimates was used in the analysis Motor reaction data also presented in graph format: median and SE Median value estimated from graph imputed as mean and SD calculated from SE Motor reaction time score (m/s) inverted (multiplied by ‐1) for analysis
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Allocation concealment?	Unclear risk	No mention of allocation concealment
Blinding of outcome assessor?	Unclear risk	Not stated
Intention to treat analysis?	Unclear risk	Not stated
Baseline similarity	High risk	Group 1 mean time post‐stroke 1.41 years compared with Group 2 mean 4.22 years