Pedeboscq 2001.

Methods	Open‐label, randomised trial.
Participants	7 gastrointestinal intensive care patients (mean age 58 years; 43% male) with severe sepsis. Exclusion: severe liver dysfunction, severe renal impairment, shock, suspected infection not susceptible to piperacillin‐tazobactam, previous antibiotic use in past 15 days.
Interventions	Piperacillin‐tazobactam 4 g/0.5 g a day i.v. over 30 minutes q8h vs piperacillin‐tazobactam 12 g/1.5 g a day i.v. continuous 24 h infusion; mean treatment duration not stated.
Outcomes	Time > MIC for Enterobacteria, Pseudomonas.
Notes	Mortality reported in Roberts 2009a review. Article in French translated into English.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Randomly assigned, but randomisation method not stated (pg. 542).
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open label.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated whether any patients were lost to follow‐up or withdrew from the study.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Reported on all pre‐specified outcomes of interest.
Other bias	Unclear risk	Concomitant fluoroquinolone use permitted (pg.541).