SURGICAL MANAGEMENT OF BICONDYLAR TIBIA FRACTURES

Purpose – to improve the tactics for surgical management of bicondylar tibia fractures to gain better outcomes. Materials and methods . The authors analyzed outcomes of surgical management of 69 patients within 36 months after the procedures. Two comparison groups were created to assess the effectiveness of the proposed techniques: the main group of 27 patients (39.1%) and control group of 42 patients (60.9%). In the main group the advanced and new techniques were applied (two-staged protocol of surgical correction, internal fixation with joint distraction, a combination of new L-shaped external and L-shaped internal approaches, bone grafting with b-TCP, carbon nanostructure implant and «Osteomatriks» xenograft). In the control group the conventional internal fixation was used. The difference in tibiofemoral (ΔFTA) and plateau-diaphyseal (ΔPDA) angles at various follow up stages were checked to evaluate reduction stability. P.S. Rasmussen score was used to assess the functional status and life quality of patients. Statistical methods of evaluation included parametric and non-parametric test to check confidence value of variances. Results. In 36 months postoperatively ∆FTA >5° in the main group was observed 1.97 times less than in control group (23.1% and 45.5% respectively); ∆PDA >5° in the main group was observed 1.66 times less than in control group (30.8% and 51.5% respectively). Total number of excellent and good results the main group 36 months postoperatively according to P.S. Rasmussen score was reported as 1.81 times higher than in the control group (50% and 27.6% respectively). Conclusion . The paper proves the efficiency of the proposed surgical procedure for bicondylar tibia fractures management.