Sutherland 2001.

Study characteristics
Methods	RCT
Participants	100 women Inclusion criteria: ASA I or II women undergoing elective CS Exclusion criteria: contraindication to spinal anaesthesia or thigh circumference > 64 cm
Interventions	Lower limb compression versus control Group 1: TED stockings applied before arrival in theatre and lower limb sequential compression device inflated immediately after spinal injection Group 2: no mechanical prophylaxis All women received a standardised spinal anaesthetic technique with dose adjusted according to subject's height. Hypotension was managed with a standardised ephedrine regimen.
Outcomes	Maternal: hypotension; systolic, diastolic and mean BP; level of sensory block; ephedrine requirement; time to first episode of hypotension Neonatal: Apgar scores at 1 min and 5 min (expressed as n with score < 9); umbilical artery pH (expressed as mean (SD))
Notes	Hypotension defined as SBP < 100 mmHg or fall of > 20% from baseline Lack of blinding acknowledged Protocol violations acknowledged
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	Neither participants nor investigators blinded
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	As above
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	Losses to follow‐up: no dropouts but 46/100 protocol violations (ephedrine administered in error on 17 occasions (9 intervention, 8 control), ephedrine omitted in error on 29 occasions (10 intervention, 19 control)
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Not apparent
Other bias	Unclear risk	Not apparent