. 2016 Mar 31;2016(3):CD011390. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD011390.pub2

Badessi 2003.

Methods	Not clear whether this is a cohort study or case‐control study
Participants	Country: Italy  Number eligible: 8  Number excluded: not stated  Number analysed: 8  Average age: not stated  Females: 3 (37.5%)  Stage I: not stated  Stage II: not stated  Stage III: not stated  Stage IV: not stated  Squamous cell carcinoma: not stated  Adenocarcinoma: not stated  Study design: retrospective study (no further details)  Total follow‐up in months: not stated  ASA: not stated  Location: not stated Inclusion criteria   Patients undergoing transhiatal oesophagectomy
Interventions	Group 1: laparoscopic transhiatal oesophagectomy (N = 5).  Further details: number of ports ‐ not stated; minilaparotomy incision size ‐ not stated; drain use ‐ not stated.  Group 2: open transhiatal oesophagectomy (N = 3).  Further details: incision size ‐ not stated; drain use ‐ not stated.
Outcomes	None of the outcomes of interest were reported (adverse events and length of hospital stay were reported but not in sufficient details to allow inclusion for meta‐analysis).
Notes	Proportion of people with cancer: 100% Conversion: not stated
*Risk of bias*
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Bias due to confounding	Unclear risk	No information Comment: There was no mention about baseline differences.
Bias due to selection of participants to intervention and control	Unclear risk	No information Comment: Method of selection of participants to intervention and control was not reported.
Bias due to differences in co‐interventions which were different between the groups	Unclear risk	No information Comment: It was not clear there were other differences in care of the patient apart from the intervention and control.
Bias in the measurement of outcomes	Unclear risk	No information Comment: Information on observer blinding was not available.
Bias due to missing data	Unclear risk	No information Comment: This information was not available.
Bias in selection of the reported findings	High risk	Critical risk of bias Comment: None of the outcomes of interest were reported.