Clinical Efficacy of Epidural Injections of Local Anesthetic Alone or Combined with Steroid for Neck Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Table 2

Methodologic quality assessment according to Cochrane review criteria.

	Manchikanti 2012; (36)	Manchikanti 2013; (37)	Manchikanti 2014; (38)	Manchikanti 2018; (39)
Adequate randomization	Y	Y	Y	Y
Concealed treatment allocation	Y	Y	Y	Y
Patient blinded	Y	Y	Y	Y
Care provider blinded	Y	Y	Y	Y
Outcome assessor blinded	N	N	N	N
Dropout rate described	Y	Y	Y	Y
All randomized participants analyzed in the group	Y	Y	Y	Y
Reports of the study free of suggestion of selective outcome reporting	Y	Y	Y	Y
Groups similar at baseline with respect to most important prognostic indicators	N	Y	N	N
Cointerventions avoided or similar	Y	Y	Y	Y
Compliance acceptable in all group	Y	Y	Y	Y
Time of outcome assessment in all groups similar	Y	Y	Y	Y
Other sources of potential bias unlikely	Y	Y	Y	Y
Score	11/13	12/13	11/13	11/13

Y: yes; N: no; U: unclear.