Figure 1. Participant Flow Through the Randomized Clinical Trial.

Discrepancy exists in the number of patients between groups because the study was undertaken in 2 phases, and in both phases, a randomization permuted by blocks of random size ranging from 4, 6, and 10 was used. In the first pilot phase of the study, recruitment was undertaken by a group of 10 anesthesiologists, each with an allocated permuted randomization sequence to follow. The second phase of the study occurred after securing additional funding support, which led to expansion of recruitment to all anesthesiologists. This also involved a combined permuted randomization sequence.

^aReasons for anesthesiologist decline were not collected.

^bAnesthesiologist withdrew patient after randomization (lack of clinical equipoise or when an arterial line was not inserted).