The Prevalence of Soft Tissue Injuries in Operative Schatzker Type IV Tibial Plateau Fractures, Our Hospital Results
Author(s): Raheel Akbar Baloch, Niaz Hussain Keerio*, Muhammad Faraz Jokhio, Najeeb ur Rehman, Mohsin Aijaz Soomro, Ajmal Khan Silro and Syed Shahid Noor
Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of soft tissue injuries in patients with surgically treated Schatzker type IV tibial plateau fractures. Methodology: The data of adult patients that got surgical treatment of tibial plateau fracture from July 2019 to July 2021 reviewed from the medical records of orthopedic department of Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad Pakistan. Orthopedic Trauma Association (OTA) classification was used to classify all the fracture types. According to Wahlquist classification, twenty six patients were classified with Schatzker type IV tibial plateau fractures. Soft tissue injuries included: meniscus injuries, anterior and posterior cruciate ligament injuries, medial and lateral collateral injuries. These soft tissue injuries were diagnosed through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and surgical operation notes. Fisher’s exact test was used to analyze the data. Results: In Schatzker type IV tibial plateau fracture, 61.5 percent of the patients had lateral meniscus injury and 46.2 percent had medial meniscus injury. The incidence of incomplete posterior cruciate ligament injury was 69.2 percent. 92.3 percent of the patients had sustained injury of anterior cruciate ligament. The prevalence of medial collateral ligament injuries was 29.6 percent and of lateral collateral ligament was 51.9 percent. According to Wahlquist classification, these fractures were classified as: type A, 1 patients; type B, 7 patients; type C, 18 patients. The difference in the location of these injuries and the type of the fracture was not significant. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the prevalence of soft tissue injuries in patients with surgically treated Schatzker type IV tibial plateau fractures is high. The most frequently occurring soft tissue injuries include: anterior cruciate ligament injuries, meniscus injuries and lateral collateral ligament injuries.