Cannulated screw fixation and plate fixation for displaced intra-articular calcaneus fracture: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

• Cannulated screw fixation and plate fixation has the similar fixation effectiveness and function outcomes for DIACF.
• Cannulated screw fixation is superior to plate fixation for the short duration of surgery and low rate of complications.
• More high quality RCTs are still needed to confirm the conclusion for different types of DIACF.

BackgroundDisplaced intra-articular calcaneus fractures (DIACFs) are the most common type of calcaneus fracture. The differences in therapeutic effectiveness between cannulated screw fixation (CSF) and plate fixation are still unclear. Thus, in this meta-analysis, we evaluated the therapeutic effectiveness of these two fixation methods.Materials and methodsWe searched for all publications on DIACFs fixated with cannulated screws or plates in the following electronic databases: Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase and CNKI. Only randomized controlled studies were included. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (version 5.1.0) was applied for analysis. The primary outcomes were American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society score (AOFAS), improvement of Bohler's angle, improvement of Gissane's angle and the width of the calcaneus. Outcomes were reported as the standard mean difference (SMD) or relative risk (RR) with the 95% confidence interval (CI). A random effects model was used to assess the pooled data.ResultsFive randomized controlled studies met our inclusion criteria, and a total of 707 patients were involved. There was no statistically significant difference between the cannulated screw fixation group and the plate fixation group in terms of excellent and good AOFAS scores (RR = 1.01, 95%CI 0.91 to 1.13, P = 0.79), improvement of Bohler's angle (SMD = 0.12, 95%CI −0.03 to 0.28, P = 0.12), improvement of Gissane's angle (SMD = 0.09, 95%CI −0.28 to 0.26, P = 0.30), or the width of the calcaneus (SMD = −0.07, 95%CI −0.24 to 0.10, p = 0.45). Compared with plate fixation, CSF showed a significant reduction in the duration of surgery (SMD = −1.74, 95%CI, −3.35 to −0.13, P = 0.03) and rate of complications (RR = 0.25, 95%CI, 0.15 to 0.44, P＜0.00001).ConclusionsCannulated screw fixation and plate fixation have similar fixation effectiveness and functional outcomes in the treatment of displaced intra-articular calcaneus fractures. Due to the shorter duration of surgery and low rate of complications, cannulated screw fixation is superior to plate fixation. However, further studies are needed to evaluate cannulated screw fixation for various Sanders types of calcaneus fractures.