Summary

Pre-treatment MRI in our series of 85 patients with pediatric tibial spine fractures lead to a delay in surgery without any difference in operative time, tourniquet time, or amount of concomitant pathology identified.

Abstract

Injuries to the tibial spine occur as a result of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) avulsion fracture from the intercondylar eminence of the proximal tibia. Similar to anterior cruciate ligament ruptures, tibial spine injuries are associated with damage to other intraarticular structures. These associated injuries are often visualized with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) obtained prior to surgery.

Hypothesis/Purpose: The purpose of the study is to describe concomitant injuries visualized by a pretreatment MRI, to examine how this correlates to what is seen at the time of surgery, and to determine how a pretreatment MRI affects the time between injury and surgery as well the length of the surgical procedure itself. Our hypothesis is a pretreatment MRI results in a longer time between injury and surgery without any affect on operating time.

Methods

Utilizing an institutional review board approved retrospective study, we identified patients under 18 years of age who underwent arthroscopic management of a tibial spine fracture over a 13 year period. Our exclusion criteria were patients with a concomitant ipsilateral lower extremity fracture or posterior cruciate ligament injury, patients with poor imaging quality, and patients with incomplete medical records. Patients were then categorized based on whether they obtained a pretreatment MRI. We evaluated concomitant injuries, time from injury to surgery, total room time, and tourniquet time between the groups.

Results

A total of 85 patients were included, and 44 (51.7%) had a pretreatment MRI. There were no significant differences in age, gender, or Myers and McKeever grade between groups. In the MRI group, 30 patients (68.2%) were identified to have additional meniscal or chondral pathology. Of those patients with pathology, 17 patients (56.7%) were confirmed to have that pathology at the time of arthroscopy. The percentage of patients with other intraarticular pathology was not significantly different between the two groups. The time from injury to surgery was significantly longer in the MRI group (19.3 days vs 10.1 days). Both the tourniquet time (72 min vs 76 min) and operative time (83.5 min vs 90.5 min) were not significantly different.

Conclusion

Over two-thirds of patients who sustained a tibial spine fracture were noted to have concomitant pathology on MRI, with 56.7% of injuries seen on MRI correlating to what was seen at the time of surgery. The use of pretreatment MRI was shown to delay surgery without any significant change in operative time, tourniquet time, or percentage of pathology identified at time of surgery. Pretreatment MRI may not be necessary prior to arthroscopic management of pediatric tibial spine fractures.