Lipman 1999.

Methods	Randomised trial.
Participants	18 critical care patients (mean age range 53 to 64 years; proportion of males/females not stated) with normal renal function requiring ceftazidime according to usual clinical practice (pg. 309). Exclusion: not explicitly stated.
Interventions	Ceftazidime 12 mg/kg i.v. loading dose infused over 2 minutes, followed by 2 g infused over 478 minutes, then 2 g infusion q8h versus ceftazidime 12 mg/kg i.v. loading dose infused over 2 minutes, followed by 2 g infused over 28 minutes, then 2 g over 30 minutes q8h; treatment duration not stated.
Outcomes	Total time plasma ceftazidime concentrations below 40 mg/L.
Notes	Pharmacokinetic trial, no clinical outcomes reported. Not included in meta‐analysis because number of patients randomly assigned into each group not reported. Did not report any outcomes of interest except "no ceftazidime‐related adverse reactions were noted" (pg. 310).
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomly assigned with “computer‐generated random numbers” (pg. 309).
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Outcomes not specified a priori reported (range of plasma ceftazidime concentrations achieved, number of patients with plasma ceftazidime concentrations > 40 mg/L).
Other bias	Unclear risk	Baseline imbalances, members of infusion group were older (mean age 64 years vs 53 years) and had higher APACHE II scores (20.5 vs 15.5) (pg. 310). Funding source not stated.