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Orthopaedics

Tibial Plateau Fractures

Built from Tang — Orthopaedic Trauma Vol 2: Lower Extremity

The first 25 slides of Tibial Plateau Fractures
The first 25 slides, exactly as they appear. The full deck has 122 content slides.

What’s inside

11 sections · 122 slides

  1. 01

    Overview

    • What this deck will teach you

    1 slide

  2. 02

    Foundations

    The knee anatomy every plateau operation must respect

    • What exactly is the tibial plateau?
    • How common are they?
    • Company these fractures keep
    • Bony anatomy of the tibial plateau
    • Why the plateau fractures so readily
    • Lateral vs medial condyle: not a mirror image
    • The intercondylar eminence: the central anchor
    • Key angles of the tibial plateau
    • Two angles the surgeon must restore
    • Surface landmarks that guide every incision
    • How the knee stays stable: the three-layer idea
    • Medial stabilising structures of the knee
    • The medial side in detail
    • Lateral stabilising structures of the knee
    • The lateral side in detail
    • The cruciate ligaments and knee rotation
    • The cruciate ligaments: the knee's internal crossbraces
    • How cruciates and collaterals work as a team
    • The menisci and how they move
    • Meniscal attachments and the capsule safe zone
    • The menisci: the knee's shock absorbers
    • Blood supply around the knee
    • Vessels and nerves at risk

    23 slides

  3. 03

    Mechanism of injury

    What breaks the plateau, and what breaks with it

    • A bone-and-soft-tissue injury
    • High-energy versus low-energy injuries
    • The force patterns that shape the fracture

    3 slides

  4. 04

    Classification

    Two systems that turn a fracture picture into a surgical plan

    • Schatzker classification of tibial plateau fractures
    • The six Schatzker types side by side
    • The Schatzker classification
    • Reading the Schatzker ladder
    • AO-OTA classification of proximal tibial fractures
    • The AO-OTA system: sorting by joint involvement

    6 slides

  5. 05

    Assessment

    Read the soft tissues and the joint before planning surgery

    • The clinical exam: soft tissue first
    • Three exams not to miss
    • Plain radiographs and the plateau view
    • X-ray: the first look
    • CT of a tibial plateau fracture
    • CT: the surgical roadmap
    • MRI sectional anatomy of the injured knee
    • MRI showing ligament and meniscal injury
    • MRI, ultrasound and the ankle-brachial index

    9 slides

  6. 06

    Principles of surgical treatment

    When to operate, when to wait, and the goals of fixation

    • Who needs surgery, and how urgently
    • Staged treatment for a fragile soft tissue envelope
    • Timing: let the skin decide
    • Staged surgery: the two acts in detail
    • The four goals distilled
    • Matching the strategy to the Schatzker type

    6 slides

  7. 07

    External fixation technique

    Temporary knee-spanning frames and definitive hybrid fixators

    • Schanz screw placement for a knee-spanning fixator
    • Temporary knee-spanning external fixation
    • Four tricks to make an external frame stiffer
    • Reduction and fixation of the intra-articular fracture
    • Hybrid fixator: reducing the joint first
    • Placing wires for a circular external fixation frame
    • Building the circular frame construct
    • The circular frame: staying in the safe zone
    • A hybrid-fixed Schatzker type VI fracture
    • After external fixation: closing and rehabilitating

    10 slides

  8. 08

    Approaches to the plateau

    Positioning and the incisions that reach each fragment

    • Positioning for open plateau surgery
    • Setup for open reduction and internal fixation
    • Anterolateral incision
    • Posteromedial incision
    • Combined approaches to the plateau
    • The menu of surgical approaches
    • Anterolateral exposure of the plateau
    • The anterolateral approach step by step
    • Posteromedial exposure of the plateau
    • The posteromedial approach step by step
    • Adding a lateral parapatellar window
    • Why add a lateral parapatellar window?

    12 slides

  9. 09

    Fixation by fracture type

    Type-specific tactics from Schatzker I to VI

    • Schatzker type I: percutaneous lag screws
    • Schatzker type I: before and after
    • Schatzker type I: the pure lateral split
    • Schatzker type II: cortical window and elevation
    • Schatzker type II: split plus depression
    • Schatzker type III: opening-book reduction
    • Schatzker type III: reduction and plating result
    • Schatzker type III: central compression
    • Schatzker type IV with knee dislocation
    • Schatzker type IV: combined approach fixation
    • Schatzker type IV: postoperative result
    • Schatzker type IV: the dangerous medial fracture
    • Schatzker type IV with meniscus intercalation
    • Treating the soft tissues with the fracture
    • Reduction sequence for a bicondylar fracture
    • Schatzker V and VI: reducing both plateaus
    • Plate selection and screw placement principles
    • Bilateral plating of a Schatzker type VI fracture
    • Choosing the fixation construct
    • Severe Schatzker type VI with soft tissue damage
    • Percutaneous plating outcome in a crush injury
    • Closing the wound, and hard-won lessons

    22 slides

  10. 10

    Complications and prevention

    Infection, malunion, and fixation failure

    • Managing wound infection after plating
    • Infection: prevention beats treatment
    • Posterior locking plate for coronal fractures
    • Failed fixation and malunion
    • Malreduction from an inadequate exposure
    • Why plateau width was lost
    • Choosing implants by side and bone quality
    • Double plating a bicondylar fracture
    • Bicondylar fixation: when one plate is not enough

    9 slides

  11. 11

    Key takeaways

    What to carry away from tibial plateau fractures

    • The essentials in one view
    • Why does a Schatzker type IV or a coronal posteromedial fracture resist a single lateral locking plate?
    • References (1/7)
    • References (2/7)
    • References (3/7)
    • References (4/7)
    • References (5/7)
    • References (6/7)
    • References (7/7)
    • Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery - Volume 2: Lower Extremity

    10 slides