Chen 1997.

Methods	Multicentre, open, randomised clinical trial
Participants	Included participants: cirrhosis (implied not stipulated) and oesophageal varices with no history of previous upper gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 156) (Table 4) Age: not reported Proportion of men: not reported Aetiology of cirrhosis: not reported Child‐Pugh score: not reported Presence of ascites: not reported
Interventions	Intervention comparison: Band ligation (n = 80) (Table 5) Participants who bled during follow‐up were banded, if possible No intervention (n = 76) Participants who bled during follow‐up were banded if possible Cointerventions: no information provided
Outcomes	Outcomes included in the meta‐analyses Mortality Upper gastrointestinal bleeding Variceal bleeding Serious adverse events
Inclusion period	Not provided
Country	Taiwan
Duration of follow‐up	Median 32 months
Notes	Publication status: abstract; further information sought from the authors but not forthcoming Participants in both groups were well matched in terms of demographic and clinical characteristics For‐profit funding: not described
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	High risk	Open trial without blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open trial without blinding
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	No information provided on the number of participants with missing outcome data (losses to follow‐up or withdrawals)
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Clinically relevant outcomes are reported. We did not have access to the trial protocol
Other bias	Low risk	No other biases identified
Overall bias assessment (mortality)	High risk	High risk of bias
Overall bias assessment (non‐mortality outcomes)	High risk	High risk of bias