Table 2

Characteristics of included trials comparing antegrade with retrograde intramedullary nailing of the femoral shaft

Study	Study design	Functional measurement	Treatment groups	No. femurs	Nailing technique	Mean age, yr	% male	BMI	ISS	% follow-up	Mean follow-up (range), mo
Daglar et al. (20)	Level II quasirandomized	Lysholm knee score	Antegrade (piriformis)	41	Radiolucent table	34	69		15.2	43	44 (25–80)
Daglar et al. (20)	Level II quasirandomized	Lysholm knee score	Retrograde	30	Radiolucent table	44.1			14.3	43
Ostrum et al. (14)	Level II quasirandomized		Antegrade (piriformis) (10 mm titanium cannulated nail, Synthes)	46	Fracture table, radiolucent table	26.6	61	24.6		85	7.28 (2.5–14.83)
Ostrum et al. (14)	Level II quasirandomized		Retrograde (titanium femoral nail, Biomet)	54	Radiolucent table	29.4	63	26.4		87
Tornetta and Tiburzi (19)	Level II quasirandomized		Antegrade (piriformis)	38	Fracture table	31			12.4 (4–42)	92
Tornetta and Tiburzi (19)	Level II quasirandomized		Retrograde	31	Radiolucent table	33			12.5 (4–42)	97
Toluse et al. (21)	Level II prospective cohort		Antegrade	20
Toluse et al. (21)	Level II prospective cohort		Retrograde	41
Herscovici et al. (15)	Level II prospective cohort		Antegrade (femoral nail, Synthes)	69		28.2	72			76	18.3 (12–59)
Herscovici et al. (15)	Level II prospective cohort		Retrograde (femoral nail, Synthes)	56
Dougherty et al. (22)	Level III retrospective		Antegrade	25	Fracture table	33.6	91			89	26 (3–112)
Dougherty et al. (22)	Level III retrospective		Retrograde	43	Radiolucent table	30.5	86			81	41 (3–148)
Kuhn et al. (23)	Level III retrospective		Antegrade	35	Radiolucent table	33.0	80	26.0			12.87 (3–38)
Kuhn et al. (23)	Level III retrospective		Retrograde	34	Radiucent table	34.3	59	33.1			15.42 (3.5–68.25)
Ricci et al. (8)	Level III retrospective		Antegrade	134		32	69			70	23 (5–64)
Ricci et al. (8)	Level III retrospective		Retrograde	147		34	73			71	23 (6–66)
Salem et al. (16)	Level III retrospective	Merle d’Aubigne and Postel, Tegner and Lysholm score	Antegrade (piriformis) (UFN, Synthes; RFN, Synthes)	29	Radiolucent table					69	14.4 (4.4–24)
Salem et al. (16)	Level III retrospective	Merle d’Aubigne and Postel, Tegner and Lysholm score	Retrograde (DFN, Synthes: IMSC Nail, Smith & Nephew)	33	Radiolucent table					64	13 (2.4–32.4)
Ricci et al. (18)	Level III retrospective		Antegrade	183	Fracture table	31				100
Ricci et al. (18)	Level III retrospective		Retrograde	172	Radiolucent table	33				100
Murray et al. (17)	Level III retrospective	KOOS, HOOS	Antegrade	19		34.5			15.21 ±12.40	14	56.8
Murray et al. (17)	Level III retrospective	KOOS, HOOS	Retrograde	14		37.1			16.36 ±10.40		36.5

BMI = body mass index; DFN = distal femoral nail; HOOS = hip dysfunction and osteoarthritis outcome score; IMSC = intramedullary supracondylar; ISS = injury severity score; KOOS = knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score; RFN/UFN = reamed/unreamed femoral nail.