Lo 1999.

Methods	Single‐centre, open randomised clinical trial
Participants	Included participants: cirrhosis and oesophageal varices at high risk of bleeding but no previous history of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 133) (Table 4) Age (mean ± standard deviation): banding 55.0 ± 12.0 years no intervention 57.0 ± 11.0 years Proportion of men: banding 84.4% no intervention 84.1% Aetiology of cirrhosis (banding; no intervention): alcohol 28.1%; 31.7% chronic viral hepatitis 65.6%; 63.5%. Child‐Pugh score (A/B/C): banding 16/30/18 no intervention 20/25/18 Presence of ascites: banding 21 (33%) no intervention 22 (35%)
Interventions	Intervention comparison (see notes) Band ligation: (n = 64) (Table 5) Participants who developed recurrent varices (n = 12) underwent further banding Participants who bled during follow‐up were banded, if possible No intervention: (n = 63) Participants who bled during follow‐up were banded, if possible Cointerventions: sucralfate given routinely to participants in the band ligation group
Outcomes	Outcomes included in the meta‐analyses Mortality Upper gastrointestinal bleeding Variceal bleeding Serious adverse events
Inclusion period	January 1992 to March 1995
Country	Taiwan
Duration of follow‐up	Median ‐ banding: 2 years and 4 months; no intervention ‐ 2 years and 6 months
Notes	Publication status: full‐paper The two groups were well‐matched for age, sex, aetiology of cirrhosis, variceal grading and severity of liver disease Overall 66 participants were randomised to banding and 67 to no intervention; 6 participants were lost to follow‐up and were excluded from the analyses The number of participants in the control group with non‐serious adverse events was not reported. Thus, we were not able to include this randomised clinical trial in the analysis of non‐serious adverse events (Table 6). For‐profit funding: not described
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Allocation sequence based on computer generated random numbers
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open randomised clinical trial without blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open randomised clinical trial without blinding
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	Six of the original 133 participants were lost to follow‐up: banding (n = 2); no intervention (n = 4); they were not included in the analyses
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Clinically relevant outcomes were defined and reported. We did not have access to the trial protocol.
Other bias	Unclear risk	Sucralfate given routinely to participants in the band ligation group
Overall bias assessment (mortality)	High risk	High risk of bias
Overall bias assessment (non‐mortality outcomes)	High risk	High risk of bias