Treatments for the Fifth Metacarpal Neck Fractures: A Network Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

The fifth metacarpal neck fractures (commonly termed boxer's fractures) are the most common type of metacarpal fractures. Many types of treatments are available in clinical practice, some of which have already been compared with other treatments by various researchers. However, a comprehensive treatment comparison is lacking. We estimated the comparative efficacy of different interventions for total complications, through a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. We conducted a systematic search of the literature through October 2015. The outcome measurements were the total complications. We used a Bayesian network meta-analysis to combine direct and indirect evidence and to estimate the relative effects of treatment. We identified 6 RCTs registering a total of 288 patients who were eligible for our network meta-analysis. The literature's quality is relatively high. The median Structured Effectiveness for Quality Evaluation of Study score for the included trials was 33.8. The overall methodological quality was high. Of the 6 studies, all were 2-arm controlled trials comparing active intervention. Among the 4 treatments—conservative treatment (CT), antegrade intramedullary nailing (AIMN), transverse pinning (TP) with K-wires, and plate fixation (PF)—CT had the best rankings (ie, lowest risk of total complications), followed by PF, AIMN, and TP (ie, highest risk of total complications). Furthermore, we also presented the results using surface under the cumulative ranking curve. The surface under the cumulative ranking curve probabilities were 94.1%, 52.9%, 37.3%, and 15.7% for CT, PF, AIMN, and TP, respectively. In conclusion, current evidence suggested that conservative treatment is the optimum treatment for the fifth metacarpal neck fractures because of reduced total complication rates. Moreover, the TP with K-wires is the worst option with highly total complication rates. PF and AIMN therapy should be considered as the first-line choices. Larger and higher-quality randomized controlled trials are required to confirm these conclusions and better inform clinical decision-making.