Pal 1988.

Methods	Randomised, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial Blinded subjects and assessor Quality score: B Selection bias ‐ in part Performance bias ‐ no Attrition bias ‐ in part Detection bias ‐ in part BIAS RATING = MODERATE Quality of diagnostic criteria = A
Participants	Total n = 48 randomised Intervention group n = 23 (41 hands) Control group n = 25 (40 hands) 5 males; 43 females Mean ± sd age: Intervention 41 ± 13 yrs Control 53 ± 13 yrs Inclusion criteria: 1. CTS confirmed with electrodiagnostic testing Exclusion criteria: 1. Patients with recognised causes of CTS: rheumatoid arthritis, other inflammatory arthropathies, thyroid disease, diabetes mellitus, acromegaly, amyloid disease 2. Pregnancy 3. Recent weight gain 4. Trauma involving the wrist 5. Patients already treated with diuretics 6. Known hypersensitivity to bendrofluazide or other thiazides
Interventions	Intervention: Diuretic treatment with bendrofluazide, 5mg daily for 4 weeks Placebo: Placebo tablet for 4 weeks
Outcomes	Outcome assessed at 4 weeks and 6 months** (5 months following end of treatment) 1. Symptom improvement (rated on ordinal scale 0‐5, 0=no improvement at all, 5=full recovery) 2. Nerve conduction* (median motor and sensory distal latencies)
Notes	Attempts to clarify allocation method with authors were unsuccessful *Note. Nerve conduction data was not entered into RevMan as mean values were published without data for variability (sd). Differences between groups for motor and sensory latencies could not be calculated. Attempts to obtain raw data from authors were unsuccessful **Outcome at 6 months was only assessed for patients who showed improvement at 4 weeks
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	B ‐ Unclear