Anticoagulants are administered only if there is a pre-existing condition.
Enteral markers were administered only if the patient was documented to be tolerant of enteral nutrition.
Neuromuscular blocking agents were administered only if deemed necessary by the clinician in charge.
Chemotherapy was administered only if KPS⩾70%, neutrophils>1.5 × 10/l and all other haematological and liver functions tests remained within normal limits.
All drugs were administered only if the platelet count was >75 000/l and the absolute neutrophil count was >1500/l before each cycle.
For females under age 18, the pregnancy questionnaire was administered only if the research staff knew there had been a pregnancy.
A bridging regimen with subcutaneous heparin was administered only if the patients received phenprocoumon and the international normalized ratio was <2 at the time of the procedure.
On each scheduled treatment day, full doses of all drug(s) were administered only if neutrophils were ⩾1.5 × 10 l−1 and platelets ⩾100 × 10 l−1; otherwise, a treatment delay of ≤2 weeks was permissible.
To ensure that participants were not hypoglycemic at the time of testing, tests were administered only if capillary glucose was ≥60 mg/dL (3.3 mmol/L) and usually after breakfast.
Medication was administered only if coagulopathic bleeding (defined as 5 min bleeding mass of 60 250 g) was observed immediately after CPB removal, protamine reversal of heparin, and surgical control of focal bleeding.
