3.1. Descriptive analysis
We identified 97 unique references from the search and assessed seven
studies according to the inclusion criteria. One non-randomized study
(10) and two studies that assessed combined interventions (11,12) were
excluded. Finally, four clinical trials involving 337 participants were
included. Figure 1 shows the PRISMA flow diagram detailing this process
and Table 1 provides an outline of the main characteristics from the
included trials. We obtained data from two trials, which included women
undergoing similar surgical procedures and receiving similar
postoperative care, exclusively from conference abstracts (13,14). The
other two trials assessed pain as the main outcome (15,16), and one of
these also assessed postoperative blood loss (16). The risk of bias from
the trials varied, and of note, the trials reported as conference
abstracts provided little detail on their study design but were
described as randomized (13,14). Risk of selection bias was low in the
other two trials, which also implemented strategies to blind the
participants and the staff responsible for the outcome evaluation
(15,16).