Stewart 1998.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial No information provided about duration of study
Participants	80 participants (40 in each group) Elective intraperitoneal colorectal resections without stoma formation (Ileocolic resection (10); hemicolectomy (right or left) (35); subtotal colectomy (11); anterior resection (24)) Route of feeding: oral Mean age (range): 58 (25‐89) (intervention group), 59 (17‐88) (control group) Sex ratio (M:F): 19/21 (intervention group), 18/22 (control group)
Interventions	Intervention group: allowed free fluids from 4 hours after operation and progressed to a solid diet from the first POD at their own discretion. Control group: remained fasting until passage of flatus or bowel motion, and were then commenced on clear fluids and progressed to a solid diet over 24 to 48 hours at the surgeon’s discretion.
Outcomes	Wound infection, anastomotic leakage, mortality, pneumonia, LoS, vomiting.
Notes	Country of study: Australia
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Patients randomly assigned according to a computer number generator to one of two groups.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No information provided.
Blinding of participants (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	No reports of attempts to blind participants. Participants are unlikely to be adequately blinded with an intervention of this nature.
Blinding of personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	No reports of attempts to blind personnel. Participants are unlikely to be adequately blinded with an intervention of this nature.
Blinding of outcome assessor (detection bias) ‐ wound infections	High risk	Assessors were not blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessor (detection bias) ‐ intraabdominal abscesses	Unclear risk	NA ‐ not assessed.
Blinding of outcome assessor (detection bias) ‐ postoperative complications e.g. acute myocardial infarction, thrombosis or pneumonia	High risk	(Respiratory complications, cardiovascular complications, urinary tract infection, pneumonia) Assessors were not blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessor (detection bias) ‐ anastomotic leakage/dehiscence	High risk	Assessors were not blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessor (detection bias) ‐ mortality	Low risk	Asessors were not blinded. Outcome assessor unlikely to affect this outcome.
Blinding of outcome assessor (detection bias) ‐ adverse events (e.g. nausea, vomiting, abdominal distention, aspiration, tube blockage and any other adverse events	High risk	(Vomiting). Assessors were not blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessor (detection bias) ‐ length of hospital stay	High risk	Asessors were not blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Less than 10% missing data.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	No protocol available. All outcomes listed in methods were reported in the results.