Tibial Tubercle Fractures in Children and Adolescents

Objectives:To report patient characteristics, fracture types, treatment methods, and clinical outcomes of children and adolescents treated for tibial tubercle fractures.Methods:Patients age 19 and under treated for tibial tubercle fractures at a single institution from 1995 to 2015 were identified and their medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical and radiographic outcomes were reported for patients with a minimum follow up of 6 months. Associations were tested using Fisher’s exact test.Results:Two-hundred thirty seven tibial tubercle fractures were identified in 229 patients; 198 (86%) male. There were 139 (59%) left sided injuries. Mean age was 14.3 years (range 4.9 - 19.8). Mean body mass index (BMI) was 25. Osgood-Schlatters was identified in 72 (30%) cases and was most commonly associated with Ogden type I fractures (p<0.001). Two-hundred and four (86%) fractures occurred while participating in athletics, most commonly basketball (87, 43%). Of the 228 cases for which mechanism of injur...