Avulsion Fracture of the Tibial Tuberosity in an Adolescent: Case Report

The present study reports a rare case of avulsion fracture of the tibial tuberosity in an adolescent. A 14-year-old male patient sprained his left knee during a soccer match. At the first emergency-room visit, he presented pain in his left knee, 2 +/4+ edema, and inability to walk and flex the affected knee, but no neurovascular changes or signs of compartment syndrome. Radiographs revealed a physeal fracture at the left proximal tibia, classified by Ogden, Tross and Murphy, and modified by Ryu and Debenham, as type IV, and complemented by Aerts et al. as type IV-B. Immobilization was performed with a plaster cast from the inguinal to malleolar regions, followed by analgesia. The patient was operated on the next day, when open reduction and internal fixation using 4.5-mm cannulated screws were performed. The patient was discharged one day after surgery, with plaster cast immobilization and load restraint for four weeks, and bone consolidation was radiologically confirmed three months after the procedure. The patient evolved with a range of motion similar to that of the contralateral limb, no length discrepancy in the lower limbs, and no complaints after one year of follow-up.