Intramedullary nails versus sliding hip screws for AO/OTA 31-A2 trochanteric fractures in adults: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: The optimum treatment with intramedullary nails (IMN) or sliding hip screws (SHS) for type 31-A2 trochanteric fractures remains controversial. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to compare IMN with SHS in AO/OTA 31-A2 trochanteric fractures.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Databases including PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase were searched to identify RCTs published before December 2016, which compared IMN with SHS for intraoperative and postoperative outcomes in AO/OTA 31-A2 trochanteric fractures.

RESULTS: A total of 909 patients from six RCTs were subjected to the meta-analysis. The results showed that the IMN group was associated with less operative blood loss, leg shortening, wound infections, length of hospital stay, and days to mobilization with walking aids and also yielded a higher Parker score as compared to the SHS group. No significant difference was seen in the other parameters including operative details, fracture fixation complications, postoperative complications, and 1 year mortality.

CONCLUSION: IMN fixation was found to be the superior treatment of choice for 31-A2 trochanteric fractures as compared with SHS fixation in our meta-analysis. The adverse effects appeared comparable between the two groups. However, due to the variations in the included studies, more large-sample, measures-unified, and high-quality RCTs are needed to validate these conclusions.