Abstract:[Objective] To compare the clinical efficacy between distal locked and unlocked intramedullary nailing in the treatment of femoral intertrochanteric fracture. [Method] The data bases, such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database, VIP database, China Biological Literature system (CBM), PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane library were searched for the comparison of clini- cal outcomes of distal locked versus unlocked intramedullary nailing in the treatment of intertrochanteric fracture from the creating to Octo- ber 2022. Literature screening, quality assessment, and data extraction were conducted to meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and Rev-Man 5.3 was used to perform the meta-analysis of parameters related to the consequences. [Results] A total of 9 studies were included with 1 977 patients treated with intramedullary nail fixation for femoral intertrochanteric fractures, including 830 cases in the distal locked group and 1 147 cases in the distal unlocked group. As results of the meta-analysis, the unlocked group proved significantly superior to the locked group in terms of operation time (MD=7.5, 95%CI 5.0~10.1, P<0.001), intraoperative bleeding (MD=37.6, 95%CI 20.1~55.2, P< 0.001), fluoroscopy times (MD=6.8, 95%CI 4.4~9.2, P<0.001) and total incision length (MD=2.5, 95%CI 2.1~2.9, P<0.001), whereas the unlocked group had significantly lower incidence of postoperative thigh pain than the locked group (RR=4.7, 95%CI 2.4~9.2, P<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in complications, such as delayed fracture healing, hip pain, wound infection, screw cutting, peri-implant fractures between the two groups (P>0.05). In addition, there was no significant difference in Harris score between the two groups at the last follow-up (P>0.05). [Conclusion] For femoral intertrochanteric fractures (31A1+A2), the distal unlocked intramedullary nails can ensure stable fixation, while reducing intraoperative injury and reducing the incidence of postoperative thigh pain.