Table 1 Characteristics of host trials

Clinical condition

Haemorrhoids

Ureteric stones

Trial design

Simple parallel design

Simple parallel design

Sample size, number

800

1200

Recruitment rate, percentage

74

56

Arms

2

3

Intervention

Surgery

Drug

1. Traditional excisional haemorrhoidectomy

1. Calcium channel blocker

2. Stapled haemorrhoidopexy

2. Alpha blocker

3. Placebo

Blinding

Participants and outcome assessors (for patient-reported outcomes)

Participants, caregivers and outcome assessors

Number of sites

31

24

Primary outcome (clinical or patient-reported and timing)

Patient-reported at 2 years post-randomisation

Clinical at 4 weeks and patient-reported at 12 weeks post-randomisation

Age in years, median (interquartile range)

49 (20–40)

44 (34–52)

Sex (percentage who are females)

48

19