Table 3 Risk of bias in the trials included in the present meta-analysis
Bias | Lencioni, 2003 | Lin, 2004 | Lin, 2005 | Shiina, 2005 | Brunello, 2008 | Giorgio, 2011 | Wang, 2011 | Azab, 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sequence generation | + | + | + | + | + | + | ? | ? |
Allocation concealment | ? | ? | ? | ? | + | + | ? | ? |
Double-blinding | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |
Incomplete outcome data | − | + | − | + | − | − | − | − |
Selective outcome reporting | − | − | − | − | + | − | − | − |
Other sources of bias | − | + | + | − | − | − | − | + |
Early stopping | ? | − | − | − | + | − | − | − |
Baseline imbalance | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |