Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunt for medically refractory hepatic hydrothorax: A systematic review and cumulative meta-analysis

Table 1 Checklist summarizing compliance with meta-analysis of observational studies in Epidemiology Guidelines

MOOSE criteriaa	Met (yes/no)
Reporting background should include
Problem definition	Yes
Hypothesis statement	No
Description of study outcome(s)	Yes
Type of exposure or intervention used	Yes
Type of study designs used	Yes
Study population	Yes
Reporting of search strategy should include
Qualifications of searchers (e.g., librarians and investigators)	Yes
Search strategy, including time period included in the synthesis and keywords	Yes
Effort to include all available studies, including contact with authors	Yes
Databases and registries searched	Yes
Search software used, name and version, including special features used (e.g., explosion)	Yes
Use of hand searching (e.g., reference lists of obtained articles)	Yes
List of citations located and those excluded, including justification	Yes
Method of addressing articles published in languages other than English	Yes
Method of handling abstracts and unpublished studies	No
Description of any contact with authors	No
Reporting methods should include
Description of relevance or appropriateness of studies assembled for assessing the hypothesis to be tested	Yes
Rationale for the selection and coding of data (e.g., sound clinical principles or convenience)	Yes
Documentation of how data were classified and coded (e.g., multiple raters, blinding, and interrater reliability)	Yes
Assessment of confounding (e.g., comparability of cases and controls in studies where appropriate)	No
Assessment of study quality, including blinding of quality assessors; stratification or regression on possible predictors of study results	Yes
Assessment of heterogeneity	Yes
Description of statistical methods (e.g., complete description of fixed or random effects models, justification of whether the chosen models account for predictors of study results, dose-response models, or cumulative meta-analysis) in sufficient detail to be replicated	Yes
Provision of appropriate tables and graphics	Yes
Reporting of results should include
Graphic summarizing individual study estimates and overall estimate	Yes
Table giving descriptive information for each study included	Yes
Results of sensitivity testing (e.g., subgroup analysis)	No
Indication of statistical uncertainty of findings	Yes
Reporting of discussion should include
Quantitative assessment of bias (e.g., publication bias)	NA
Justification for exclusion (e.g., exclusion of non-English-language citations)	Yes
Assessment of quality of included studies	Yes
Reporting of conclusions should include
Consideration of alternative explanations for observed results	Yes
Generalization of the conclusions (e.g., appropriate for the data presented and within the domain of the literature review)	Yes
Guidelines for future research	Yes
Disclosure of funding source	Yes

^aAdapted from Stroup et al[29]. Used with permission. MOOSE: Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiolgy; NA: Not applicable.