ReviewJournal of clinical orthopaedics and trauma2026
Comparative outcomes of medial and lateral plating for distal third tibial fractures: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Journal of clinical orthopaedics and trauma, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Distal third tibial fractures pose significant surgical challenges due to minimal soft-tissue coverage and a high risk of wound complications. Although both medial and lateral plating techniques are commonly used for fixation, the best surgical approach remains debated. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to compare the clinical outcomes and complication rates of medial and lateral plating for distal third tibial fractures. Methods: The study protocol was first registered in PROSPERO Results: 15 studies comprising 707 patients met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis demonstrated that medial plating was associated with significantly higher rates of hardware-related complications (OR 4.17; 95% CI 2.67-6.49), implant removal (OR 5.97; 95% CI 2.11-16.87), postoperative infection (RR 1.98; 95% CI 1.26-3.12), and overall soft-tissue complications (OR 3.25; 95% CI 1.84-5.75) compared with lateral plating. Wound dehiscence occurred less frequently with lateral plating (OR 0.24; 95% CI 0.13-0.45). No significant difference was observed between the two approaches in terms of malunion rates. Conclusion: The findings suggest that lateral plating may be associated with lower soft-tissue morbidity but comparable fracture alignment with medial plating. Since most included studies were observational and relatively small, the findings should be considered hypothesis-generating rather than definitive. Treatment decisions should therefore remain individualized. Further well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCT)s are needed to confirm these findings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.