| Methods |
RCT, unblinded |
| Participants |
43 participants. 34 men, 9 women. Mean age 23.7 years (range 17‐33). New presentation only. |
| Interventions |
Open healing (wide excision open) vs. midline closure (primary midline closure). |
| Outcomes |
Healing time, SSI, recurrence, other complications, cost. |
| Notes |
88% follow up at 3 years. |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
Quote: "The patients were randomised". |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
Not reported. |
| Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
Reported that two participants opted for primary closure despite randomisation. No information on how they were incorporated into the analysis (e.g. whether they used intention to treat analysis or not). |
| Free of selective reporting? |
Low risk |
|
| Free of other bias? |
Unclear risk |
Participants were followed in outpatient clinic. However, when it was impractical they were followed by a telephone call or a questionnaire. The study did not report the number of participants for each assessment method or whether this was applied to all or some outcomes. |
