Carvalho 1999b.

Study characteristics
Methods	Randomised trial
Participants	100 women Inclusion criteria: healthy women undergoing spinal anaesthesia for elective caesarean Exclusion criteria: not specified Setting: Brazil
Interventions	Ephedrine infusion (different rates) versus control Group 1: ephedrine infusion 0.5 mg/min administered immediately after spinal anaesthesia Group 2: ephedrine infusion 1 mg/min administered immediately after spinal anaesthesia Group 3: ephedrine infusion 2 mg/min administered immediately after spinal anaesthesia Group 4: ephedrine infusion 4 mg/min administered immediately after spinal anaesthesia Group 5: no ephedrine All women received a standardised anaesthetic technique and dose.
Outcomes	Maternal: hypotension; vomiting; hypertension requiring intervention. Neonatal: cord/neonatal blood < 7.2; Apgar < 8 at 5 min
Notes	Hypotension defined as fall in SAP below 20% baseline Abstract only
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method of randomisation not reported
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not reported
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not reported
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not reported
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not reported
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Not reported
Other bias	Unclear risk	Not reported