| Methods |
Randomised
National
Multicentre
Parallel group |
| Participants |
Adults and children
N = 150 |
| Interventions |
IVIg 0.4 g/kg daily for 5 days versus PE 200 mL/kg to 250 mL/kg over 7 to 14 days |
| Outcomes |
Proportion improved 1 disability grade after 4 weeks and see text of review |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Low risk |
"Randomization was stratified only according to centre with a block size of 6 not known to the investigators" |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Low risk |
"Telephone randomisation service" |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes except death |
High risk |
"Open study. During follow‐up one of the study coordinators evaluated every patient once and the scores were compared with those of the individual investigators" |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
Death |
Low risk |
Reporting of death unlikely to be biased |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes except death |
Low risk |
146/147 participants followed |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
Death |
Low risk |
146/147 participants followed |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
All specified outcomes reported |
| Other bias |
Low risk |
None detected |
| Diagnostic criteria |
Low risk |
Asbury 1990 criteria |
| Baseline differences |
Low risk |
Age, disability, disease duration and amplitude of compound muscle action potential were not significantly different between groups |
