Mujtaba 1999

Methods	Study design: randomised controlled trial Setting/location: Pakistan Study period: around 4‐5 months Sample size calculation: not described
Participants	Type of Leishmania: Leishmania spp not mentioned Inclusion criteria: clinical diagnosis of CL and positive Giemsa‐stained smear of parasite Exclusion criteria: > 5 lesions and pregnant women N participants randomised (lesions): 104 (215). Group 1: n = 49 (111); group 2: n = 55 (104) Withdrawals: 8 N assessed: 96. group 1: n = 49; group 2, n = 47 Age: 0‐10 years: group 1, 11; group 2, 12 11‐20 years: group 1, 19; group 2, 17 21‐30 years: group 1, 10; group 2, 11 > 30 years: group 1, 9; group 2, 7 Sex (male/female): 58/38 Baseline imbalances: comparability regarding age, sex, number, and site of lesions and duration of the disease Duration of the disease (months) 0–2: group 1, 12; group 2, 11 3‐4: group 1, 13; group 2, 12 5–6: group 1, 11; group 2, 13 >6: group 1, 13; group 2, 11 No. of lesions in individual participants 1: group 1, 21; group 2, 19 2: group 1, 12 ; group 2, 11 3: group 1, 11; group 2, 10 > 3: group 1, 5; group 2, 7 Total number of lesions at various anatomic sites in all participants Upper limbs: group 1, 48; group 2, 45 Face: group 1, 33; group 2, 31 Lower limbs: group 1, 29; group 2, 28 Trunk: group 1, 1; group 2, 0
Interventions	Type of interventions: Group 1: ILMA injections weekly until complete cure or up to 8 weeks Group 2: ILMA injections fortnightly until complete cure or up to 8 weeks Duration of intervention: until complete cure or up to 8 weeks
Outcomes	Healing: complete cure (100%); partial (> 50%; < 50%); failure (nil) Speed of healing (time taken to be 'cured') Duration of remission and percentage of people with treated lesions that recur within 6 months and 1, 2, and3 years:time assessment not specified Prevention of scarring Adverse effects Time points reported: at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks of treatment
Notes	Study funding sources: not reported Possible conflicts of interest: none declared
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Quote: "The patients were randomly divided into two treatment groups" Comment: insufficient detail was reported about the method used to generate the allocation sequence.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Quote: "Patients in group A were treated with weekly and those in group B with fortnightly intralesional injections" Comment: we think the outcome is likely to be influenced by lack of blinding.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not described
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Dropouts: 8/104: 7.6% lost to follow‐up Comment: the results for the defaulters were excluded from the statistical analysis. We think missing outcome data unlikely to be related to true outcome.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	The study protocol is not available, but it is clear that the published reports include all expected outcomes.
Other bias	High risk	Sample size calculation and reporting of Leishmania spp involved was not correctly reported