The influence of arthroscopy on the classification and treatment of tibial plateau fractures.

Introduction: Arthroscopically-assisted reduction and percutaneous fixation of tibial plateau fractures is associated with fewer adverse events, better knee motion, and better Rasmussen functional scores compared to open reduction internal fixation in a number of non-randomized studies. The purpose of this study was to measure the influence of arthroscopy on the interobserver reliability in classification, treatment, and evaluation of intra-articular pathology and fracture reduction for fractures of the tibial plateau.

Methods: Surgeons were invited to participate in this online survey study. Surgeons were randomized at a 1:1 ratio to review eight cases of patients with tibial plateau fractures with either 1) knee radiographs alone or 2) radiographs and arthroscopic images. Multirater kappa was used to assess chance-corrected interobserver agreement.

Results: There was no difference in interobserver agreement between groups for classification, treatment choice, determination of intra-articular pathology, or evaluation of fracture reduction.

Conclusions: Arthroscopy may not influence classification, treatment choice, diagnosis of intra-articular pathology, or quality of fracture reduction. Future studies will be necessary to determine if arthroscopic-assisted fixation of tibial plateau fractures is generalizable to surgeons of different training backgrounds.