Croce 1997.

Methods	RCT.
Participants	Setting: single centre (Codogno Civic Hospital, Italy). 202 women with selective episiotomy. Mean age: group A = 29.5 years; group B = 27.7 years. Operator: not stated.
Interventions	Method of repair: as described below. Women divided into 2 groups. Group 1 (N = 100), vaginal trauma sutured with a continuous (Guilmen‐Pontonnier technique) with catgut. Group 2 (N = 102), interrupted (Blair‐Donatti technique) with catgut.
Outcomes	Included in analysis: short‐term pain at 24 and 76 hours; long‐term pain at 1, 2 and 3 months' postpartum; dyspareunia; infection, haematoma and cosmetic results (not reported).
Notes	Method of repair: described.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Allocated by 'randomisation' but matched for age, socioeconomic status and parity.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No information available regarding concealment of treatment allocation.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Clinical staff	High risk	Different suture techniques.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Women	High risk	Not stated but women may have been aware of suturing technique.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Outcome assessors	High risk	Not stated but assessment was likely to have included perineal examination.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Analyses apparently ITT (202 women included in the analyses) but it was not clear how many women were originally randomised.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Not apparent.