Literature search and information sources
We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled
Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE (via Ovid), EMBASE
from inception to January 2015, Web of Science from
2010 to January 2015 and Google Scholar. We used
2010 as a cut off, the date on which Zhang and colleagues
ran their searches for the 2011 update [24]. We
used the terms “bronchiolitis” and “hypertonic saline”
to identify ongoing unpublished data in the following
registries: Clinicaltrials.gov; UK Clinical Trials Gateway
(UKCTG); CRD databases (DARE NHS EED, HTA);
controlled-trials.com; centrewatch.com and National
Research Register (NNR). On 14th January 2015 we also
hand-searched Chest, Paediatrics and Journal of Paediatrics
using the terms “hypertonic saline” and “bronchiolitis”.
One reviewer (HC) checked the reference lists
of all eligible trial publications for other relevant trials.
The final search strategy is outlined in Additional file 3.