Filali 1993.

Methods	Random allocation, but method of randomisation and concealment not mentioned Unclear blinding status ITT analysis (?)
Participants	Age more than 16 yrs (mean age 28.9 years) Both sexes (more males in control group than in experimental group) Diagnosis of meningococcal meningitis based on a positive CSF culture or detection of meningococcal polysaccharide antigen in CSF. Also, if a patient presented with the characteristic clinical findings of meningitis and purulent CSF during an epidemic, a diagnosis of meningococcal meningitis was accepted
Interventions	Experimental arm: ceftriaxone (2 g i.v. daily for 2 days) Control arm: penicillin G (300,000 IU/kg/day 4 hrly for 6 days) 1/16 patients randomised to ceftriaxone group had to be given ceftriaxone for 7 days due to severity of disease
Outcomes	Death Neurological sequelae Duration of coma Duration of fever Duration of follow‐up: 2 months after discharge No adverse effects noted in either group
Notes	Study conducted in Morocco
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Insufficient information about the sequence generation process
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not reported
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	The study did not address this
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	No adverse effects noted in either group
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk
Other bias	Unclear risk	Insufficient information