Wipke‐Tevis 1998.
| Methods | Randomised clinical trial | |
| Participants | Country: USA Number randomised: 32 Post‐randomisation drop‐outs: 5 (15.6%) Revised sample size: 27 Average age: 62 years Male: female ratio: 22 (81.5%): 5 (18.5%) Inclusion criteria: people undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery with saphenous vein grafts Exclusion criteria: people receiving immunosuppressant medications, or undergoing intra‐aortic balloon pump therapy | |
| Interventions | Participants randomly assigned to 2 groups Group 1 (n = 7): early dressing removal, wound left open 24 h after surgery. Dry sterile dressing was used, if there was any section of the wound that continued to drain, until the discharge stopped Group 2 (n = 20): delayed dressing removal, dressing remained in place until removal of sutures. Two types of dressings were used (this again was random, so this was a 3‐armed trial of early dressing removal versus delayed dressing removal with 2 different dressings). One of the delayed dressing groups received daily dressings with sterile gauze. The remaining participants in the delayed dressing group received Tegaderm dressing (frequency of change not stated) | |
| Outcomes | None of the outcomes of interest for this review were reported | |
| Notes | We attempted to contact the authors in January 2013. Authors replied with information regarding risk of bias assessment Reason for post‐randomisation drop‐outs: incomplete data (group not stated) |
|
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | Quote: "A table of random numbers out of the back of a statistics book was utilized" (author replies) |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | Quote: "Each potential subject was given an ID number and a sequence was placed in an opaque envelope" (author replies) |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | High risk | Comment: no dressing was given beyond 24 h after surgery in the early dressing group while the dressing was left until suture removal in the delayed dressing group making blinding of participants impossible |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | Comment: this information was not available |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | High risk | Comment: there were post‐randomisation drop‐outs, and the groups to which they had been randomised could be seen |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | High risk | Comment: did not report some important outcomes that would generally be assessed |
| Other bias | Low risk | Comment: no other bias was noted |
Abbreviations
< = less than h = hour(s)