Obladen 1991

Methods	Randomised controlled trial Study location: 5 centres in Europe Study period: April 1989 to February 1990
Participants	93 infants with PMA of 28 to 32 completed weeks' gestation
Interventions	43 infants in the EPO group received EPO (Boehringer Mannheim GmbH) 30 IU/kg SC every third day (70 IU/kg/week, low dose) from the fourth to the 25th day of life. 50 control infants did not receive SC injections of placebo but were managed identically. Elemental iron treatment was started on day 14 with 2 mg/d orally.
Outcomes	Use of 1 or more red blood cell transfusions Total volume of blood transfused per infant Mortality Chronic lung disease ROP (infants were followed for ROP, but results were not reported) IVH NEC BPD Hypertension Renal failure PDA
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)	Low risk	Prenumbered sealed envelopes
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Control infants were not given subcutaneous injections of placebo. Personnel were not blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Control infants were not given subcutaneous injections of placebo. Assessors 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