Govender 2003.

Methods	Randomisation, controlled Method of randomisation: unclear Kind of shunt: ventriculoperitoneal shunts Location: United Kingdom, multicentre Follow‐up: median of 9 months (range 1 to 20 months) Duration: unclear
Participants	Inclusion: patients with hydrocephalus who had been identified primarily as uninfected Exclusion: CSF infection, pregnant or lactating, known sensitivity to rifampin or clindamycin, harboured an open and uncorrected myelomeningocoele or encephalocoele Treatment: 50; control: 60
Interventions	Ventriculoperitoneal shunt impregnated with clindamycin and rifampin (Bactiseal; Codman, Johnson & Johnson, Boston, MA) versus a control shunt
Outcomes	Proportion of participants who had shunt infection Days to infection ranged from 6 days to 354 days
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	"The difference in the colour of the shunts dictated the need for a blind study"
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not described
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	15 participants (9.8%) lost to follow‐up
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Study protocol well defined and pre‐specified outcome measures and analysis were available
Other bias	Low risk	The study appears to be free of other sources of bias