Table 1.
Literature search strategy.
Fig 1.
PRISMA diagram of the detailed process of selection of studies for inclusion in the systematic review and meta-analysis.
Table 2.
Characteristics of included studies.
Fig 2.
Risk of bias assessment of the included studies using RoB v2 tool.
Table 3.
Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment of observational studies.
Fig 3.
Forest plot that demonstrates the comparison between buried and exposed K-wire for the pin site infection outcome in both randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies.
Fig 4.
Forest plot that demonstrates the comparison between buried and exposed K-wire for the early pin removal outcome in both randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies.
Fig 5.
Forest plot that demonstrates the comparison between buried and exposed K-wire for the days to pin removal outcome in both randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies.
Fig 6.
Forest plot that demonstrates the comparison between buried and exposed K-wire for the duration (minutes) of surgery outcome in both randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies.
Fig 7.
Bubble-plot for meta-regression.
Meta-regression analysis showed that the comparison between buried and exposed K-wire with the pin site infection outcome was not significantly affected by sample size (A), age (B), sex (C), nor follow-up duration (D).
Table 4.
Result for the meta-regression models for each outcome of interest.
Fig 8.
Bubble-plot for meta-regression.
Meta-regression analysis showed that the comparison between buried and exposed K- wire with the early pin removal outcome was not significantly affected by sample size (A), age (B), sex (C), nor follow-up duration (D).
Fig 9.
Bubble-plot for meta-regression.
Meta-regression analysis showed that the comparison between buried and exposed K- wire with the days to pin removal outcome was not significantly affected by sample size (A), age (B), sex (C).
Fig 10.
Funnel plot analysis that showed a relatively symmetrical inverted plot for the pin site infection outcome, indicating no publication bias.