Tibial Eminence Involvement With Tibial Plateau Fracture Predicts Slower Recovery and Worse Postoperative Range of Knee Motion.

OBJECTIVES

To examine 1-year functional and clinical outcomes in patients with tibial plateau fractures with tibial eminence involvement.

DESIGN

Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data.

SETTING

Academic Medical Center.

PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: All patients who presented with a tibial plateau fracture (Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) 41-B and 41-C).

INTERVENTION

Patients were divided into fractures with a tibial eminence component (+TE) and those without (-TE) cohorts. All patients underwent similar surgical approaches and fixation techniques for fractures. No tibial eminence fractures received fixation specifically.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS

Short musculoskeletal functional assessment (SMFA), pain (Visual Analogue Scale), and knee range-of-motion (ROM) were evaluated at 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively and compared between cohorts.

RESULTS

Two hundred ninety-three patients were included for review. Patients with OTA 41-C fractures were more likely to have an associated TE compared with 41-B fractures (63% vs. 28%, P < 0.01). At 3 months postoperatively, the +TE cohort was noted to have worse knee ROM (75.16 ± 51 vs. 86.82 ± 53 degree, P = 0.06). At 6 months, total SMFA and knee ROM was significantly worse in the +TE cohort (29 ± 17 vs. 21 ± 18, P ≤ 0.01; 115.6 ± 20 vs. 124.1 ± 15, P = 0.01). By 12 months postoperatively, only knee ROM remained significantly worse in the +TE cohort (118.7 ± 15 vs. 126.9 ± 13, P < 0.01). Multivariate analysis revealed that tibial eminence involvement was a significant predictor of ROM at 6 and 12 months and SFMA at 6 months. Body mass index was found to be a significant predictor of ROM and age was a significant predictor of total SMFA at all time points.

CONCLUSION

Knee ROM remains worse throughout the postoperative period in the +TE cohort. Functional outcome improves less rapidly in the +TE cohort but achieves similar results by 1 year.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.