Table 1 Summaries of the quality of evidence of each study
Study Groups | Study design | Overall `risk of bias | Disease definitions (characterization) | Study groups size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Boothe et al.[11] | A | bRCTs | Low/Moderate | Poorly | Moderate |
2. EMEA pseudo-trial[13] | Unclear | Good | |||
3. Tipold et al.[14] | Poorly | Good | |||
4. Muñana et al.[12] | Poorly | Moderate | |||
5. Schwartz-Porsche et al.[15] | nbRCT | Moderate/High | Unclear | Moderate | |
6. Chung et al.[24] | B | UCTs | Moderate/High | Well | Small |
7. Cunningham et al.[29] | Well | Small | |||
8. Dewey et al.[18] | Fairly | Very small | |||
9. Dewey et al.[19] | Fairly | Small | |||
10. Kiviranta[17] | Fairly | Small | |||
11. Platt et al.[22] | Poorly | Small | |||
12. Pearce[32] | Fairly | Small | |||
13. Volk et al.[16] | Well | Small | |||
14. Schwartz-Porsche[28] | Well | Small | |||
15. Schwartz-Porsche et al.[30] | Poorly | Moderate | |||
16. Steinberg[23] | Unclear | Small | |||
17. Rieck et al.[27] | High | Fairly | Small | ||
18. Govendir et al.[21] | Poorly | Small | |||
19. Von Klopmann et al.[20] | Fairly | Small | |||
20. Löscher et al.[26] | Fairly | Small | |||
21. Morton et al.[31] | Unclear | Small | |||
22. Nafe[25] | Fairly | Moderate | |||
23. Heynold[36] | Retrospective case series studies | Fairly | Moderate | ||
24. Podell et al.[33] | Fairly | Moderate | |||
25. Ruehlmann et al.[35] | Moderate/High | Fairly | Very small | ||
26. Trepanier et al.[34] | Unclear | Good | |||
Löscher et al.[26](retrospective part) | As a part of trials | Fairly | Moderate | ||
Rieck et al.[27](retrospective part) | Fairly | Moderate | |||
Volk et al.[16](retrospective part) | Well | Very Small |