A systematic review of medial and lateral pinning versus lateral entry pinning for supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To systematically review the existing evidence about the effect of medial and lateral (crossed) entry pins versus only lateral entry pin fixation on the supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children.Methods Eligible studies were identified in Cochrane library,the Cochrane Bone,Joint and Muscle Trauma Group (till March 2011 ),Medline (from 1966 to March 2011 ),EMbase (from 1966 to 2011 ),CBM (from January 1979 to March 2011 ),PubMed,Wanfang Data (from 2000 to March 2011 ) and CNKI and the references of the included studies and several Chinese orthopedic journals were manually searched.Then,the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-randomized controlled trials (CCTs) about two entries (crossed and only lateral pinning) for supracondylar fractures of humerus in children were collected.After evaluation of methodology with the enrolled studies,available data was extracted and systematic review was conducted via the method recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration.Results In total,five RCTs involving 311 patients were involved.Compared with the preoperative data,the meta-analysis results showed no significant difference in reduction stability in terms of change in Baumann angle and Carrying angle between the two groups.For the postoperative function outcome including complete reduction,Flynn grade and full return to function,no significant difference was found between the two groups.For the postoperative complications,there was no difference in the infection of pin tract,though lateral entry resulted in a significant lower incidence of the iatrogenic nerve injury compared with the medial and lateral entry.Conclusions With the Kirschner wire fixation for supracondylar fractures of humerus in children,current existing evidences indicate that the lateral entry of pinning has similar results in reduction stability,function outcome and incidence of pin tract infection compared with medial and lateral entry.Nevertheless,lateral entry,as a safe pinning technique,may effectively decrease the risk of iatrogenic nerve injury