Bone transport versus acute shortening for the management of infected tibial bone defects: a meta-analysis

Background: The treatment for infected tibial bone defects can be a great challenge for the orthopaedic surgeon. This meta-analysis was conducted to compare the safety and efficacy between bone transport (BT) and the acute shortening technique (AST) in the treatment of infected tibial bone defects. Methods: A literature survey was conducted by searching the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases together with the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and the Wanfang database for articles published up to 9 August 2019. The modified Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) was adapted to evaluate the bias and risks in each eligible study. The data of the external fixation index (EFI), bone grafting, bone and functional results, complications, bone union time and characteristics of participants were extracted. RevMan v.5.3 was used to perform relevant statistical analyses. Standard mean difference (SMD) was used for continuous variables and relative risk (RR) for the binary variables. All of the variables included its 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Five studies, including a total of 199 patients, were included in the study. Statistical significance was observed in the EFI (SMD = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.25, 1.01, P = 0.001) and bone grafting (RR = 0.26, 95%CI: 0.15, 0.46, P <0.00001); however, no significance was observed in bone union time (SMD = –0.02, 95% CI: –0.39, 0.35, P = 0.92), bone results (RR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.91, 1.04, P = 0.41), functional results (RR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.86, 1.08, P = 0.50) and complications (RR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.41, 1.39, P = 0.37). Conclusions: AST is preferred from the aspect of minimising the treatment period, whereas BT is superior to AST for reducing bone grafting. Due to the limited number of trials, the meaning of this conclusion should be taken with caution for infected tibial bone defects.