Suske 1996.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial
Participants	26 preterm infants < 2 hours old, with birth weight < 1500 grams if FiO2 > 0.50, or > 1500 grams birth weight with FiO2 > 0.70 Exclusions: known sepsis, cardiac anomalies, malformations of lung or CNS
Interventions	Intravenous dexamethasone 0.5 mg/kg/d for 5 days Controls were not given placebo.
Outcomes	Blood gases, ventilator settings, mortality IVH, BPD (O2 28 days), NEC, late sepsis, PDA, ROP, air leak, duration in hospital
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Random allocation via sealed envelopes. Randomisation achieved by drawing lots
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Allocation concealment: yes
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Blinding of intervention: no
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Blinding of outcome measurement: no
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Complete follow‐up: yes
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All prespecified outcomes reported