Study	Reason for exclusion
He 1999	Claimed to be a RCT, but was identified in a telephone interview with the original author as a non‐RCT.
Liu 2007	Claimed to be a RCT, but was identified in a telephone interview with the original author as a non‐RCT.
Lu 2009	This study, which compared local and systemic administration of glucocorticoids, was not a RCT.
NCT00553735	Trial assessed treatment of dry eye syndrome in people who had recently received a bone marrow transplant.
Reinhard 1999	Participants with different conditions.
Wu 2001	Claimed to be a RCT, but was identified in a telephone interview with the original author as a non‐RCT.
Xi 2003	Claimed to be a RCT, but was identified in a telephone interview with the original author as a non‐RCT.
Ye 2004	Claimed to be a RCT, but was identified in a telephone interview with the original author as a non‐RCT.
Zhao 2005	Claimed to be a RCT, but was identified in a telephone interview with the original author as a non‐RCT.
Zhou 2008	A quasi‐RCT, allocated participants by the number of birth date.

RCT: randomised controlled trial