| Methods |
Random allocation mentioned but method and concealment not clear
Unclear blinding status
ITT analysis |
| Participants |
Age range: 1 month to 12 years
Both sexes
Patients having meningococcal meningitis diagnosed on clinical and CSF grounds
Criteria for diagnosis:
1) meningitis with or without purpura;
2) isolation of N. meningitidis from blood or CSF culture; or
3) positively stained smear of CSF for gram negative diplococci |
| Interventions |
Experimental arm: ceftriaxone (80 to 100 mg/kg/day i.v. in a single dose for 4 days)
Control arm: penicillin G (500,000 IU/kg/day i.v. 4 hourly for 5 days |
| Outcomes |
Deaths
Duration of fever
Reccurrence of disease within 6 months
Duration of follow‐up: max. of 6 months |
| Notes |
Study done in Turkey
33% of patients had meningococcaemia without meningitis |
| 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 |
Study did not address this |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
|
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Unclear risk |
Insufficient information |
| Other bias |
Unclear risk |
Insufficient information |
