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).