“…All studies were RCTs and mainly multi‐centre, except for one (Shirasugi et al , ), with sample sizes ranging from 21 to 234. All studies were two‐arm comparisons, including 5 studies (Bussel et al , ; Bussel et al , ; Cheng et al , ; Tomiyama et al , ; Yang et al , ) for eltrombopag versus placebo, 4 (Bussel et al , ; Kuter et al , ; Kuter et al , ; Shirasugi et al , ) for romiplostim versus placebo, 2 (Arnold et al , ; Ghanima et al , ) for rituximab versus placebo, 1 (Cui et al , ) for rhTPO+ciclosporin versus rhTPO, 1 (Zhou et al , ) for rhTPO+rituximab versus rituximab and 1 (Wang et al , ) for rhTPO+danazol versus danazol. Nine RCTs (Bussel et al , ; Bussel et al , ; Bussel et al , ; Cheng et al , ; Shirasugi et al , ; Tomiyama et al , ; Cui et al , ; Zhou et al , ; Yang et al , ) included exclusively patients with persistent ITP, while 4 (Kuter et al , ; Kuter et al , ; Arnold et al , ; Ghanima et al , ) included mixed newly diagnosed and persistent ITP patients and 1 (Wang et al , ) did not mention ITP phase.…”