Bias assessment
Risk of bias assessment uncovered numerous concerns regarding the
study’s methodology, with all papers demonstrating “some concerns” (5)
to “high” (2) risk. Overall quality of trials varied considerably,
with incomplete reporting of methods and results inhibiting a thorough
bias assessment. No trials were registered in Clinicaltrials.gov,
meaning comparison of planned and reported outcomes was not possible.
Only Maw described 6 patients lost to follow-up, and no studies
described an intention to treat analysis. Risk of bias assessment is
summarised in table 5 and figure 2 .