ARTHROSCOPY OF MENISCAL INJURIES WITH TIBIAL PLATEAU FRACTURES

We examined 36 consecutive patients with closed tibial plateau fractur es under anaesthesia and by diagnostic and operative arthroscopy befor e treating them by closed or open reduction and internal fixation. Fol lowing the principle of Hohl (1967) (Fig. 1) there were 9 minimally di splaced fractures (type I), 6 with local depression (type II), 13 with split depression (type III), 7 with total condylar depression (type I V), and one bicondylar comminuted upper tibial fracture (type V). Seve nteen (47%) of knees were found to have associated meniscal injuries w hich required surgical treatment; five repairs and 12 partial meniscec tomies. Neither the type of plateau fracture nor the presence or absen ce of ligament injury correlated with meniscal tear. There were no int raoperative or postoperative complications from arthroscopy.