2. History of search results and study selection decisions.

Version	Date searched up to	Report
1st version Issue 3, 1998	July 1997	"The specific MEDLINE search, run from 1976 to 1997, in conjunction with the first two levels of the optimal RCT specific search (see 'Search strategy for identification of studies') produced 32 reports of which 13 focused on the management of isolated ulnar fractures, and only two of which were controlled studies and put forward for inclusion. The EMBASE search run from 1981 to 1997 produced 26 studies, of which seven focused on the management of isolated fractures of the ulna, but as none of these were controlled, none were put forward for inclusion. A further two comparative studies (Labbe 1996; Skinner 1989), both published as abstracts, were identified but were excluded since they were not randomised or quasi‐randomised trials (see the 'Characteristics of excluded studies'). In their recent response stating that Labbe 1996 was a retrospective study, the trialists added that they were working on an randomised controlled trial investigating the same comparison (percutaneous intramedullary nailing versus plate fixation). A request for further details of this trial will be sent."
2nd version Issue 2, 2000	August 1999	"There was no response from Dr Labbe to our request sent September 1998 for further details on the randomised controlled trial which he mentioned in his first response. Neither were there details given in the full report of Labbe 1996 published in 1998 (see Footnote). Correspondence in October 1998 with Dr Lisa Wood, then an orthopaedic registrar based in the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, UK, alerted one of the review authors, Helen Handoll, to the possibility that a comparative study by Goel et al (Goel 1991) could be a randomised trial. However, since there was no response from the trialists to our inquiries, we have placed this study in the excluded studies category."
3rd version Issue 2, 2001	December 2000	"The newly identified trial (Collinge 2000), located via handsearching, involved a randomised comparison of open reduction and plating with intramedullary nailing in 36 patients with 37 diaphyseal forearm fractures. Separate data were not presented for the six patients (three in each group) with only an ulnar fracture. Some of these may have been among the 10 patients who were not included in the results. We considered that the sample size was too small to pursue the data for these patients and thus have excluded this trial."
4th version Issue 2, 2002	November 2001	"The updating of the search strategy to November 2001 resulted in the identification of no new studies."
5th version Issue 2, 2003	November 2002	"The updating of the search strategy from November 2001 to November 2002 resulted in the identification of three new studies. Two of these, published in German, were located via CENTRAL and the other via MEDLINE. Upon obtaining translation or through enquiry with the trial investigator, all three were excluded for reasons given in the 'Characteristics of excluded studies' table."
6th version Issue 2, 2004	December 2003	"The updating of the search strategy from November 2002 to December 2003 resulted in the identification of one new study, which compared two types of plates used for the surgical fixation of forearm diaphyseal (shaft) fractures (Leung 2003). This study was included upon obtaining separate data for patients with isolated ulnar fractures."
7th version Issue 2, 2005	January 2005	"The updating of the search strategy from December 2003 to January 2005 resulted in the identification of a letter and reply (Rajasekhar 2004) regarding one of the included trials (Leung 2003). We found no new studies."
8th version Issue 1, 2007	September 2006	"The updating of the search from January 2005 to September 2006 resulted in the identification of no new studies."
9th version Issue 3, 2009	December 2008	"The updating of the search from September 2006 to December 2008 resulted in the identification of one new trial (Van Leemput 2007)."

Labbe JL, Peres O, Leclair O, Goulon R, Bertrou V, Saintlanne S. La fracture isolee de la diaphyse ulnaire, de l'osteosynthese par plaque a l'embrochage centro‐medullaire [Fixation of isolated ulnar shaft fracture by open reduction and internal fixation with plate or percutaneous intramedullary nailing]. Revue de Chirurgie Orthopedique et Reparatrice de l'Appareil Moteur 1998;84(6):515‐22.