Li 2013.

Study characteristics
Methods	Non‐blinded, parallel‐group randomised controlled surgical trial with 6‐month duration of follow‐up
Participants	Setting: Center Hospital Dalian, China Sample size: Number randomised: 160 children Number completed: 147 children Participant (baseline) characteristics: Age: 2 to 13 years Gender: 56% males, 44% females Inclusion criteria: diagnosis of OSAHS according to the Urumqi 2007 criteria produced by the Chinese Otolaryngology Research Team Exclusion criteria: not stated
Interventions	Intervention group: tonsillectomy (TE) using coblation (n = 80) Comparator group: tonsillotomy (TT) using coblation (n = 80) Use of additional interventions: concurrent adenoidectomy in all participants
Outcomes	Short‐term outcomes (1 week and 3 months): sleep monitoring results (looking at snoring/apnoea, lowest oxygen saturation and mean oxygen saturation), postoperative pain according to VAS and therapeutic effects (e.g. postoperative bleeding) Medium‐term outcomes (6 months): recurrence of oSDB symptoms
Notes	Participants lost to medium‐term follow‐up (6 months) total: 8% (10% TE, 6% TT)
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method not described
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method not described
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Not blinded
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Not blinded
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	8% patients lost to follow‐up
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	No protocol available; insufficient information to permit a judgement of low or high risk
Other bias	Unclear risk	Participant base characteristics: balanced Formal sample size calculations: not performed ITT analysis: unclear Use of co‐interventions: similar across groups (concurrent adenoidectomy performed in 100% TE, 100% TT)