Schuetz 2006

Methods	Randomised trial comparing enteral nutrition to no enteral nutrition in patients hospitalized with cirrhosis and encephalopathy. Geographical location: Germany. Paper published 2006.
Participants	Inclusion criteria: Hospitalized patients with cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy. Exclusion criteria: None cited. 22 hospitalised patients (16 male/6 female, mean age 60).
Interventions	Intervention group received enteral nutrition through nasogastric tube (only detail was "high protein formulation"); Control group given standard diet. Duration of therapy 14 days.
Outcomes	Appearance of hepatic encephalopathy.
Category of study	Enteral nutrition/Medical.
Sample size calculation	Not reported if performed.
Full paper or abstract only	Abstract.
Notes	Trial from same group as Norman 2008, but appears to be different trial. Abstract states no change in encephalopathy and all patients appeared to have subclinical encephalopathy at beginning, so assumed no frank encephalopathy developed. On September 17, 2011, e‐mails sent to Drs Norman and Pirlich (kristina.norman@charite.de and Matthias.pirlich@charite.de) requesting information about both Norman and Schuetz trials. (E‐mail for Dr Pirlich failed.) No response has been received as of March 20, 2012.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Only states "patients were randomly assigned".
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Not blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	22 patients presented, but unclear if they were the only ones randomised.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	No mortality data.
Other bias	Unclear risk	Funding source not reported.
Intent to treat analysis	Unclear risk	22 patients reported but unknown if other patients enrolled in trial.
Baseline imbalance?	Unclear risk	Only Childs‐Pugh scores at baseline presented.
Early stopping?	Unclear risk	No sample size calculation and unknown why stopped.