McElhinney 2000.

Methods	RCT.
Participants	Setting ‐ Ulster Hospital, Dundonald, Northern Ireland, UK. 153 women randomised. Inclusion criteria ‐ women with a parity of 0 to 2; between 18 and 40 years of age; singleton fetus; had a normal vaginal delivery and required an episiotomy or had sustained a second degree tear (skin and perineal muscle). Exclusion criteria ‐ not documented. Parity ‐  primigravida and multigravida. Maternal age ‐ 18 to 40 years. Operator ‐ not documented.
Interventions	Method of repair ‐ all repairs carried out using the same technique with 1 length of suture material and subcuticular perineal skin closure. Method not fully described. Intervention group (n = 75) ‐ fast‐absorbing polyglactin 910 (Vicryl Rapide) (gauge of material and needle size not specified). Comparison group (n = 78) ‐ standard polyglactin 910 (Vicryl) (gauge of material and needle size not specified).
Outcomes	Perineal pain ‐ 24 hrs and 3 days. Analgesia at 3 days. Wound infection, gaping wound (no data), suture removal ‐ 6 and 12 weeks. Dyspareunia ‐ 6 and 12 weeks postpartum.
Notes	All women received a diclofenac suppository (100 mg) for pain relief, following completion of the repair.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Adequate sequence generation?	Unclear risk	Treatment allocated by block randomisation (block size not clear).
Allocation concealment?	Unclear risk	"Two sets of sealed envelopes."
Blinding? Women	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Blinding? Clinical staff	Unclear risk	Not stated, however, this would be difficult due to possible differences in suture materials.
Blinding? Outcome assessors	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Incomplete outcome data addressed? All outcomes	Unclear risk	77% of participants followed up at 12 weeks.
Free of other bias?	Unclear risk	Non‐significant results were not reported in full (stated that differences were not significant).