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Surgical treatment of avulsion fractures of the knee PCL tibial insertion: experience with 21 cases

We assessed 21 patients (16 males and 5 females), with mean age of 30 years who underwent surgical treatment for PCL avulsion fracture. In 57% of the cases, injuries were secondary to motorcycle accidents and 19% resulted from car accidents. Injuries on knee's anterior surface were detected in 72% of the cases. The surgical procedure involved posterior approach and bone fragment fixation using nut and screw in 18 cases, the trans-bone suture loop fixation in 3 cases with small bone fragments. In 91% of the cases, surgery was performed within the first two weeks following injury. The patients were objectively (posterior drawer test) and subjectively (Lysholm scale) re-evaluated after a minimum follow-up period of 12 postoperative months. The statistical analysis of objective and subjective assessments did not demonstrate any significant difference (p = 0.05). The satisfactory results of the subjective clinical postoperative evaluation may have been due to the absence of peripheral ligament injury. However, the presence of residual tibial posteriorization suggests that the avulsion fracture of the PCL should be treated as bone-ligament injury, and not just as a bone lesion.

Knee; Posterior cruciate ligament; Reconstruction; Bone fractures


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