Table 5.

Descriptive characteristics of component studies.

Authors	ST	PN	Male/female	MA	MBD	MPSP (per patient)	Bone union rate (%)	Bone results (excellent/good/fair/poor)	Functional results (excellent/good/fair/poor)	Complications Per patient	EFT (months)	EFI (months/cm)	Follow-up (months)
Karim et al (2019)	PS	50	48/ 2	33.6	3.6	2.8	98	17 (34%)/30 (60%)/1 (2%)/2 (4%)	15 (30%)/24 (48%)/8 (16%)/3 (6%)	1.9	nr	nr	nr
Cengiz et al (2019)	RC	32	22/10	40.3	5.7	2.6	100	20 (63%)/9 (28%)/3 (9%)/0 (0%)(paley)	19 (60%)/11 (34%)/2 (6%)/0 (0%)(paley)	1.6	nr	nr	65.2
Zhang et al (2017)	RS	41	31/10	44	10.1	nr	100	30 (73%)/6 (15%)/5 (12%)/0 (0)	21 (51%)/9 (22%)/7 (17%)/4 (10%)	1.2	13	1.3	35
Yin et al (2015)	RS	35	nr	nr	nr	nr	100	22 (63%)/11 (31%)/2 (6%)/0 (0%)	12 (34%)/15 (43%)/8 (23%)/0	1.3	nr	1.5	nr
Mohamed et al (2013)	RS	20	19/1	37.5	nr	2.0	96	10 (50%)/6 (30%)/1 (5%)/3 (15%)	4 (20%)/13 (65%)/3 (15%)/0 (0%)	3.2	8.0	nr	36.7
Wan et al (2012)	RS	13	8/5	32.2	8.9	2.6	100	6 (46%)/2 (15%)/0 (0%)/5 (39%)	7 (54%)/4 (31%)/2 (15%)/0 (0%)	2.0	14.8	4.4	81.4
Arora et al (2012)	RS	15	13/2	18–47	7.9	2.9	100	12 (80%)/3 (20%)/0 (0%)/0 (0%)(Arora)	5 (33%)/8 (54%)/2 (13%)/0 (0%)(Arora)	2.3	7.3	0.9	19.3
Blum et al (2010)	RS	50	41/9	29.9	8.8	3.8	98	nr	nr	2.3	24.5	nr	70.8
Krishnan et al (2019)	RS	20	17/3	38.4	6	4.4	95	13 (65%)/4 (20%)/1 (5%)/1 (5%)	3 (15%)/9 (45%)/3 (15%)/4 (20%)	3.6	nr	1.3	62.8
Saridis et al (2006)	RS	13	10/3	34.5	8.3	3.1	100	8 (62%)/4 (31%)/1 (7%)/0 (0%)(paley)	3 (23%)/4 (31%)/4 (31%)/2 (15%) (paley)	1.7	10.3	1.6	42.4
Mekhail et al (2006)	RS	19	14/5	36.4	5.7	2.5	89.5	nr	2 (11%)/11 (57%)/4 (21%)/2 (11%) (paley)	2.1	13.8	2.4	68.7
Barbarossa et al (2001)	RS	30	6/24	39.4	6.3	4.4	96.7	13 (43%)/9 (30%)/2 (7%)/5 (17%)/1 (3%)	5 (17%)/10 (33%)/8 (27%)/6 (20%)/1 (3%)	2.9	nr	nr	nr

ST, study type; PN, patient number; MA, mean age; MPSP, mean previous surgery per patient; EFT, external fixator time; EFI, external fixator index; nr, not reported; PS, a prospective study; RS, retrospective study; RC, retrospective cohort.