Sir—In April 2010 a meta-analysis with the title “Plate fixation or intramedullary fixation of humeral shaft fractures” was published by our group in Acta Orthopaedica 2010; 81 (2): 216-23. In this article we stated that there was no statistically significant difference in primary and secondary outcomes between plates and intramedullary nails in humeral shaft fractures.

Just after our meta-analysis was accepted for publication in Acta Orthopaedica, Putti et al. (2009) published a new randomized controlled trial comparing nails to plates in humeral shaft fractures making our findings obsolete.