Leach 2003.

Study characteristics
Methods	Study design: split‐body, randomised study Method of randomisation: coin toss to determine which leg was assigned each treatment Blinding: participant ‐ no, doctor ‐ no Power calculation: not mentioned Total number of participants randomised: 13 participants had each lower limb randomised to receive 1 of 2 sclerosing agents Total number of procedures: 26 Treatment localisation: leg veins Exclusions post‐randomisation: none Number of withdrawals and reasons: none
Participants	Setting: outpatient site Country: USA Gender: women Age: mean 57 years (range 41 ‐ 70) Inclusion criteria: presence of leg veins 0.2 to 0.4 mm in diameter without evidence of feeding reticular veins Exclusion criteria: incompetence at the saphenofemoral or saphenopopliteal junctions
Interventions	Treatment 1: STS 0.25% Treatment 2: chromated glycerin 72% 1 leg of each participant was randomised to receive either STS 0.25% or chromated glycerin 72%, and the other leg received the other agent Duration of follow‐up: ranged from 2 to 6 months Use of compression: not mentioned
Outcomes	Efficacy: vessel clearance (yes, no) assessed by treating physician at follow‐up Adverse events: bruising, swelling, hyperpigmentation (yes, no) assessed by treating physician at follow‐up Pain: assessed by participant at time of injection (yes, no)
Funding sources	No funding source stated
Declarations of interest	No details provided
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	A coin toss
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details given
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	No blinding mentioned. STS and CG have different viscosities that are visible at time of injection
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	2 independent experts who were not involved in the treatment
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	There were no incomplete data
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All specified outcomes were reported
Other bias	Unclear risk	No details given