A knee immobilizer or hinged knee brace may be used to provide support for your leg. You may need to use crutches, a walker and/or a wheelchair. Depending on your injury, this will last 6 to 12 weeks. This is to keep the bones from moving as you heal. That means no walking on or pushing off of your broken leg. You will not be able to bear weight on your leg for weeks after breaking your bone. These required several weeks in external fixators before definitive surgery. This decision will be made by your surgeon.įigure 6: X-rays of a patient that broke both tibial plateaus very badly. Sometimes, additional bone from either yourself or a cadaver is used to help repair the break. Plates, screws, and pins may be used to hold the bones in place. There is rarely a need to make an incision on the back of the knee. Depending on how your bones are broken, these cuts may be on the front of your knee, the side of your knee, or both. Once surgery is safe to do, your surgeon will make cuts in your leg to line your bones back up. It may take several days to several weeks. Your surgeon will evaluate your skin and swelling to decide when he or she thinks you are ready for surgery. If your bone is broken in many places or it is not lined up correctly, you may require surgery. Once you do start putting weight on the leg, it will just be a little bit to begin with and then you can slowly increase the amount over time. Generally, you will not be allowed to put weight on your leg for 6 to 12 weeks. If your fracture can be treated without surgery, you may be kept in a brace or a splint for a period of time. Your surgeon will discuss this with you and give you options for treatment. General Treatmentĭepending on where the break is and how well it is lined up, tibial plateau fractures may be treated with or without surgery. Too much swelling of the leg can cause serious problems putting your leg, nerves, and muscles at risk of permanent injury. You may also be admitted to the hospital to make sure you don’t have too much swelling after your break. This is a temporary way of holding the leg and bones in a better position (lines them up) and allows the swelling to go down until it is safe to fix your bone with plates and screws. An external fixator is a device made up of pins that are put in your femur (thigh bone) and tibia (leg bone) and bars that connect the pins together. Sometimes the break is so bad you need to be taken to the operating room to have an external fixator put on. Either way you will not be able to walk or put weight on the leg. Often, you will be put into a brace or a splint. Depending on how bad the break is, you may be able to go home or you may be admitted to the hospital. In the emergency room you will get x-rays as well as a CT scan. You will likely need to go to an emergency room because of the pain. Initial TreatmentĪfter you break your tibial plateau it will be very painful, and you will most likely not be able to walk on it. The knee in on the right is very swollen after suffering a break in the bone after a fall. Evidence-Based Medicine Resource List Overviewįigure 4: Photograph showing the swelling and bruising that is seen after a tibial plateau fracture.Video Library: Annual Meeting & Conferences.Sponsorship Right of First Refusal Guidelines.Exhibits & Marketing Partnerships Overview.Corporate & Foundation Donor Archive Overview.Lifetime & Planned Giving Donors Overview.OTA Orthopaedic Trauma References & Resources.Disaster Management and Emergency Preparedness Overview.Disaster Management and Emergency Preparedness.
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