High Incidence of Soft Tissue Injury in Pediatric Proximal Tibia Fractures: A Systematic Review

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the incidence of soft tissue injuries associated with pediatric proximal tibial fractures (PPTF) and the frequency that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used before surgery in this patient population. METHODS: A systematic review of English literature, using EMBASE and PubMed, was completed. Articles reporting on soft tissue injury in PPTFs between 1980 and 2021 were identified. Associated pathology (meniscal tear, meniscal entrapment, cruciate ligament injury, extensor mechanism injury, and chondral injury) and use of MRI at time of diagnosis, were assessed in these studies. Twenty-three articles were included. RESULTS: Extraction of data revealed 1046 patients and 1057 fractures, with a mean age of 12.3 ± 1.7 at the time of injury. Most patients were male (n = 757 [72.3%]). Most fractures were tibial eminence fractures (TEF) (n = 747 [70.7%]), followed by tibial tubercle (n = 218 [20.6%]) and then tibial plateau fractures (n = 92 [8.7%]). Associated soft tissue injuries were found in 58.8% (n = 621) of fractures overall. Meniscal entrapment was the most common, occurring in 22.1% (n = 234) of cases. Meniscal tears occurred in 18.6% of cases (n = 197), followed by ligament injury in 9.4% (n = 99), chondral injury in 6.5% (n = 69), and extensor mechanism injury in 2.1% (n = 22) of cases. All cases of tendinous extensor mechanism injury were seen in tibial tubercle fractures, with 22 injuries occurring in 10.1% of tibial tubercle fractures. At time of injury just 24.3% (n = 257) of fractures had an MRI performed before surgery. CONCLUSIONS: PPTFs are associated with a high incidence of associated injury (58.8%), particularly in TEFs (63.5%) and TPFs (100%). LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Systematic Review of Level III-IV studies