Table 1.

The PICOT format

Population	Male and/or females adult >18 years or older with chronic wounds of the lower extremities (CWLEs) including diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), traumatic wound (TW), venous and/or arterial leg ulcer (VLU, ALU), surgical wound (SW), burn wound (BW) and pressure ulcers (PU).
Intervention/exposure	Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT, focused/unfocused).
Comparative	Any standard wound care, sham and other physical modalities and different ESWT protocols.
Outcome	Wound healing, measured objectively: Time to complete healing (days) Percentage of reduction in wound surface area (WSA) Proportion of wounds completely healed at a specified time point Blood perfusion measurements Adverse effects (e.g. neurovascular complications, infection, dermatitis, erythema, excessive granulation and necrotic tissue).
Time frame	If more than one follow‐up set of data presented within the same category of timing of an outcome measure, only one set was considered (e.g. short‐term follow‐up refers to outcomes measured closest to 4 weeks after randomisation; intermediate follow‐up refers to measures taken at least 6 months after treatment, and long‐term follow‐up refers to measurement taken close to 2 years after treatment) 38.