| Methods |
Study design: Randomised Controlled Trial. Object of randomisation: patients |
| Participants |
Turkey. Doctors who collected ABG samples from patients in the emergency care department. Number studied: 550 patients. Intervention group n = 275. Control group n = 275. |
| Interventions |
Use of safety‐engineered blood gas syringes which once in the artery filled automatically as a result of arterial pulse pressure. The control group used conventional heparinised syringes. |
| Outcomes |
(1) Number of needlestick injuries (2) Number of events of blood splashes (3) Number of attempts (4)The degree of difficulty of ABG extraction procedure according to physicians. |
| Notes |
Includes information about cost analysis. |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
The method of randomization carried out was not mentioned. |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Sealed envelopes were used. |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
No information available. |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
No missing outcome data. Data available includes all physicians who performed arterial blood gas extraction procedures (n = 27). |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
Pre‐specified outcomes were reported accordingly. |
| Similar recruitment of groups |
Low risk |
The study included patients who visited the ED during the period of May 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012. |
| Adjustment for baseline differences |
Low risk |
There was no significant difference between groups in terms of age, weight, sex, height, wrist circumference and BMI. |
| Other bias |
Low risk |
The study appears to be free of other types of bias. |
