[Meta-analysis of proximal femoral nail anti-rotation versus dynamic hip screw in the treatment of trochanteric fractures].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of proximal femoral nail anti-rotation (PFNA) versus dynamic hip screw (DHS) in the treatment of trochanteric fractures in adults.

METHODS: Reports of studies using randomized controlled trials (RCT) to compare PFNA with DHS in the management of intertrochanteric fractures were retrieved (up to December 5, 2011) from the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Elsevier, the Chinese Biomedical Database, Wanfang Data,and manually. Methodological quality of the trials was critically assessed, and relevant data were extracted. Statistical software Revman? 5.0 was used for data-analysis.

RESULTS: Thirteen RCTs involving 958 cases were included in the Meta-analysis. The results showed that, compared with DHS, PFNA significantly decreased the duration of surgery [WMD = -21.38, 95%CI (-33.05,-9.26), P<0.05], intra-operative blood loss [WMD = -176.36, 95%CI (-232.20, -120.52), P<0.05], the rate of post-operative complication [RR=0.46, 95%CI (0.31, 0.70), P<0.05], the rate of post-operative fixation failure[RR=0.27, 95%CI(0.11,0.62), P<0.05].

CONCLUSION: PFNA for intertrochanteric fractures is superior to DHS in regards to the mean duration of surgery, mean intra-operative blood loss, the rate of post-operative complication, and the rate of post-operative fixation failure. But there is not enough evidence to show any difference between PFNA and DHS in regards to the mean duration of hospital, the mean duration of fracture healing, the rate of post-operative fracture, the rate of post-operative coxa vara, the rate of postoperative superficial wound infection, the rate of other post-operative complications or the Harris score after surgery.