Belcaro 1999.

Methods	Multicentre, open RCT; 6‐month follow‐up.
Participants	562 non‐hospitalised participants with ST, large varicose veins, and venous incompetence; 181 males, 263 females; mean age range across study groups 53‐56 years. Diagnosis of ST objectively confirmed by colour Doppler compression ultrasonography.
Interventions	Surgery (ligation). Surgery (complete stripping). Low‐dose sc heparin. LMWH. Coumadin.
Outcomes	DVT and extension of ST after treatment and after 3 and 6 months. Not specified if DVT and extension of ST were symptomatic or asymptomatic.
Notes	All participants received compression bandages. Duration of non‐surgical treatments unclear and dose of heparin or coumadin not specified. Funding: not reported. Disclosure of potential COI: not reported, no COI forms available. Gianni Belcaro erased from the UK medical register in June 2007 for "misconduct," which seems to have been that he included as coauthors on his papers people who were not involved in the research. The General Medical Council report did not suggest that data were falsified webcache.gmc‐uk.org/minutesfiles/3313.HTML.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method of random sequence generation not reported.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method of allocation concealment not reported.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	No information provided about blinding, but it was likely an open study.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	118 (21%) participants lost to follow‐up.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All prespecified outcomes reported.