Surgical management of patellar fractures

In this study pre and post operative fractures of 22 patellar fracture cases treated with surgical approach were analysed. Out of 22 cases, 16 (72.7%) belonged to males and 6 (27.3%) belonged to females. The mean age of the cases was 34.1 year with the minimum 8 and the maximum 75 years. The mean follow up period was 18 month with the minimum 4 and the maximum 45 month period. The surgical procedures were, osteosynthesis in 16 cases, partial patellectomy in 5 cases and fibrin adhesive was used in 1 case. The cases were operated at average. 4.6 days after the trauma. The evaluation was performed according to the modified Cincinnati and Böstman scoring systems. Accordingly, in 54.5% of cases the results were evaluated as very good and in 22.5%, good, in 13.5% satisfactory and in 9 % bad. Male patellar fractures seemed to give better results than female cases. Currently the most preferred treatment appraach for patellar fractures is the modified AO anterior tensian band method, when the results of this study with regard to the modified AO anterior tensian band method are compared to the published results in the literature, our results score higher (87.5%). However in partial patellectomy cases the score was 80%. In conclusion, our study shows that in surgical treatment of patellar fractures, there are several parameters which inf{uence the outcome. These parameters are the types of fracture encountered, the surgical approach taken, and the quality of post operative rehabilitation. Further more, the modified AO method seems to be the method for osteosynthetic appraach.