Surgical Treatment of the Anterior Tibial Spine Fracture: Surgical Indication and Results

Moon, Myung Sang; Woo, Young Kyun; Ha, Kee Yong; Yoo, Jeong Nam

Abstract

The management of fractures of the intercondylar eminence of the tibia is uncomplicated when the fracture has minimal displacement(type I) or when only anterior one-third or half of the eminence is elevated(type II)(Meyers and Mckeever 1959, 1970). The treatment of complete separation(type III) has been controversial. Many authors however recommended conservative treatment even for the completely separated fracture if the fracture fragment is not rotated. Two cases of non-union of the tibial spine fracture we experienced were; one in type IIl, and the other type II. They were treated conservatively by cast immobilization. One patient had severe anterolateral rotatory.instability and had lateral meniscal tear, and the other had transverse ligament impingement at the fracture gap which interfered the reduction of the fragment and also bony union. Through the clinical experience and the two listed non-union cases, we drafted a therapeutic plan for the avulsed tibial spine fractures. The authors recommend open reduction and internal fixation of the avulsion fracture of the tibial spine in following circumstance; 1) all of the type K complete separation injuries 2) tibial spine fracture with positive Lachman test and soft end point 3) fracture with associated ligament injury. We applied the above surgical indications for 13 cases. The authors reviewed 25 cases of the anterior tibial spine fracture patients treated at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Catholic Unviersity Medical College during the period from October 1982 to August 1986 and the following results were obtained. 1. The cases were classified into 3 different categories according to the Meyers and Mckeever classification; Type I(7 cases, 29%), Type II(10 cases, 40%), Type III(8 cases, 31%). 2. Associated ligament injuries on the same knee were rupture of LCL for 7 cases(28%) and MCL for 6 cases(24%). 3. Twelve out of thirteen open reduction and internal fixation cases had excellentresult in minimum 6 months follow-up period.