Fixation Strategy Does Not Affect Risk of Growth Disturbance After Surgical Treatment of Pediatric Tibial Spine Fracture

PURPOSE: To characterize growth abnormalities after surgical treatment of tibial spine fractures and to investigate risk factors for these abnormalities. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of children who underwent treatment of tibial spine fractures between January 2000 and January 2019 was performed, drawing from a multicenter cohort among 10 tertiary care children’s hospitals. The entire cohort of surgically treated tibial spine fractures was analyzed for incidence and risk factors of growth disturbance. The cohort was stratified into those who were younger than the age of 13 years at the time of treatment in order to evaluate the risk of growth disturbance in those with substantial growth remaining. Patients with growth disturbance in this cohort were further analyzed based on age, sex, surgical repair technique, implant type, and preoperative radiographic measurements with χ(2), t-tests, and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Nine patients of 645 (1.4%) were found to have growth disturbance, all of whom were younger than 13 years old. Patients who developed growth disturbance were younger than those without (9.7 years vs 11.9 years, P = .019.) There was no association with demographic factors, fracture characteristics, surgical technique, hardware type, or anatomic placement (i.e., transphyseal vs physeal-sparing fixation) and growth disturbance. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found an overall low incidence of growth disturbance after surgical treatment of tibial spine fractures. There was no association with surgical technique and risk of growth disturbance. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective comparative study.