Total knee arthroplasty with long tibial stem for tibial stress fractures with knee osteoarthritis: Two birds with one stone

PURPOSE: The treatment and outcome of tibial stress fractures concomitant with knee osteoarthritis (OA) are complicated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional and radiological outcome of total knee arthroplasty with long tibial stem as a treatment for patients having knee OA and tibial stress fracture. METHODS: Patients who were diagnosed to have proximal tibia stress fracture along with knee OA at our institution between June 2013 and November 2018 were included in our study. All patients underwent total knee arthroplasty with long tibial stem. Preoperative and postoperative functional assessments were done according to range of movement of the knee joint, knee society score and knee injury and OA outcome score. Descriptive analysis was carried out by mean and standard deviation for quantitative variables, frequency and proportion for categorical variables. RESULTS: Twelve patients were included in the study. All patients were found to have stress fractures in the proximal half of tibia and extra-arthrosis. Four patients had non-union/delayed union, and 8 patients had acute fractures. The average preoperative range of movement was 88.1°, which improved to 116.3° at 3 months following surgery. It was found that the fracture has healed in all cases. Mean knee society score improved from 32.9 preoperatively to 89.3 at 1 year follow-up. Knee injury and OA outcome score improved from a mean score of 28.3 preoperatively to 81.1 at 1 year follow-up. CONCLUSION: Stress fractures can occur in the proximal tibia in patients with knee OA. Total knee arthroplasty with tibial stem provides a suitable solution for both conditions. Additional plating or bone graft is unlikely to be required.