Safety and effectiveness of neuromuscular electrical stimulation in cardiac surgery: A systematic review

Table 1 Quality assessment of the included studies using the physiotherapy evidence database

	Fischer et al[19]	Schardong et al[20]	Kitamura et al[21]	Fontes Cerqueira et al[22]	Fontes Cerqueira et al[23]	Sumin et al[24]	Rengo et al[25]	Cerqueira et al[26]	Takino et al[27]	Sumin et al[28]
Eligibility criteria1	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
Random allocation	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
Concealed allocation	√	√			√			√	√
Baseline comparability	√	√	√	√	√	√		√	√	√
Blinded subjects	√	√			√				√
Blinded therapists
Blinded assessors		√	√	√		√		√	√
Adequate follow-up	√	√	√						√	√
Intention-to-treat analysis	√	√	√	√	√	√		√	√	√
Between-group comparisons	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
Point estimates and variability	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√
Total score	8/10	9/10	7/10	6/10	7/10	6/10	3/10	7/10	9/10	6/10

¹Eligibility criteria item does not contribute to total score.