Association between articular surface depression and functional outcomes after ORIF of tibial plateau fractures: a retrospective cohort study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
PURPOSE: Tibial plateau fractures (TPF) involving the articular surface are among the most severe joint injuries of the lower extremities. The effect of precise reduction of TPF on postoperative outcomes remains uncertain. While several studies have emphasized the importance of restoring articular congruity, others have reported limited correlation between radiographic parameters and long-term function, leaving it unclear which aspects of reduction truly drive functional recovery. This study aims to evaluate and correlate postoperative CT scan parameters of patients who underwent ORIF for TPF with patient reported outcomes at 6 years post-surgery. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study with cross-sectional outcome assessment was conducted on patients who underwent ORIF for tibial plateau fractures between 2016 and 2019. Patients without postoperative CT or lost to follow-up were excluded. Pre- and postoperative CT scans were analyzed for articular depression, plateau tilt, condylar widening, and posterior tibial slope. Patient-reported outcomes, including the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), were obtained and correlated with CT findings to identify predictors of poor outcome. RESULTS: Of 71 patients, 49 were included in the final analysis. The mean age was 51.6 years; 26 (53%) were men and 23 (47%) women. The mean follow-up was 6 years. The mean WOMAC and KOOS scores were 36.7 ± 19.1 and 58.9 ± 18.9, respectively. A post-operative articular step-off of ≥ 2.5 mm was significantly associated with worse WOMAC scores (p = 0.004). Other radiologic parameters, including condylar widening, tibial plateau tilt, and articular depression, showed no significant correlation with WOMAC or KOOS scores. CONCLUSION: A postoperative step-off deformity exceeding 2.5 mm on postoperative CT scans significantly impacts the mid-term functional outcome of patients undergoing ORIF after TPF, as evidenced by poorer WOMAC scores. This study emphasizes the importance of accurate TPF reduction to optimize patient outcomes.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".