Study	Reason for exclusion
Cheng 2011	Fracture location is on the distal third of the tibia diaphysis, which is outside of the scope of review
Dai 2009	The study design was not explicitly stated with no description of allocation method. It seems to be a retrospective study. Also, the fracture location was not clearly defined: the study included AO/OTA type A, B and C fractures, without mentioning whether type 42 or type 43 fracture was included. If type 42 fractures were included, they are outside the scope of this review. If type 43 fractures were included, a high proportion of intra‐articular fractures (type B+C, 21/25 versus 15/20) were present, which are also outside the scope of this review
Hontzsch 2014	This RCT of two types of locking systems for intramedullary nailing included 75 participants in the experimental group and 67 participants in the control group. However, only 3/75 versus 0/67 were classified as AO/OTA 43 fractures; the rest being AO/OTA 42 fractures, which are outside the scope of this review
Li 2014	The study focused on distal tibial shaft (AO 42) fractures, which was beyond the scope of review
Liu 2014	The fracture location of the study was not clearly defined: the study included AO/OTA type A, B and C fractures, without mentioning whether type 42 or type 43 fracture was included. If type 42 fractures were included, they are beyond the scope of this review. If type 43 fractures were included, a high proportion (> 25%) of intra‐articular fractures (type B+C/total: 26/68) was present; which also is a reason for exclusion
Ristiniemi 2011	Retrospective study design. The study design is outside the scope of review
Shon 2012	Retrospective cohort study design. The study design is outside the scope of review
Sun 2014	The study focused on distal tibial shaft (AO 42) fractures, which are outside the scope of review
Vallier 2011	This was an RCT but the fracture location was 4 cm to 11 cm from the distal tibia plafond; which is outside the scope of this review
Vallier 2012	The study focused on extra‐articular distal tibia shaft fractures (OTA 42), which was beyond the scope of review
Yang 2006	Retrospective study design. The study design is outside the scope of this review
Zou 2012	RCT but the trial included distal tibial shaft fractures (AO/OTA types 42 A, 42B, and 42C fractures), which are outside the scope of this review
Zou 2013	RCT but the trial included distal tibial shaft fractures (AO/OTA types 42 A, 42B, and 42C fractures), which are outside the scope of this review

AO/OTA: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen/Orthopaedic Trauma Association

RCT: randomised controlled trial