ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To systematically evaluate clinical effects of metal and non-metallic materials in internal fixation for patellar fracture.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The reports concerning about controlled trial of metallic and non-metallic materials for patellar fracture from create database to June 2018 were searched from PubMed, EMBASE, Web of science, CNKI and Wanfang data. Information was screened and taken out according to inclusion and exclusion criteria by 2 researchers, and risk of bias in non-andomised studies of interventions (ROBINS-I) was used to evaluate literature quality. Rate of reoperation, excellent and good rate of clinical rehabilitation, incidence of postoperative complications were compared with Revman 5.3 software for Meta-analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Totally 9 retrospective cohort studies including 493 patients were selected. There was no significant difference in reoperation rate of internal fixation failure between metallic implants and non-metallic implants[OR=0.52, 95% CI (0.25, 1.08) =0.08]. The excellent and good rate of postoperative clinical rehabilitation in patients receiving non-metallic implants were higher than those in receiving metallic implants[OR=3.34, 95% CI (1.67, 6.71), =0.000 7]; incidence of total complications was also lower than that of metallic implants[OR=0.21, 95% CI (0.07, 0.60), =0.003]. There was no significant difference in the incidence of non-metallic related complications after removing Kirschner wire needle and complications of skin irritation [OR=1.08, 95% CI(0.45, 2.56), =0.86].</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Non-metallic plants could provide the same success rate of internal fixation as metal plants, could improve the excellent and good rate of postoperative rehabilitation by reducing incidence of complications associated with metallic plants. In further, more evidence-level research is needed to confirm in the future.</p>