Carnielli 1992

Methods	Randomised controlled trial Study location: single centre in Italy Study period: not stated
Participants	22 preterm infants with gestational age < 32 weeks, birth weight < 1750 grams, and age > 2 days
Interventions	11 infants in the EPO group received EPO (unnamed product), 400 IU, 3 times weekly, IV (400 IU/mL saline solution for 1 to 2 minutes) if IV line in place (1200 IU/kg/week, high dose), then continued SC, plus iron (h) 20 mg/kg once a week IV (high‐dose iron) from second day of life until discharge. 11 infants in the control group did not receive EPO or iron.
Outcomes	Number of transfusions Number of donor exposures (range) Mortality Neutropenia Hospital stay in days Side effects
Notes	It is not stated whether infants who had received blood transfusions before study entry were included. Transfusion guidelines were in place.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No information provided
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Infants randomly assigned
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Control group received no placebo. Personnel were not blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Control group received no placebo. Personnel were not blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Complete follow‐up: yes
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	The protocol for the study was not available to us; therefore we cannot ascertain whether deviations from the protocol occurred.
Other bias	Low risk	Appears free of other bias