Morphological Characteristics of Posterior Wall Fragments Associated with Acetabular Both-column Fracture

Treatment of both-column fractures with posterior wall involvement is still a controversial topic. This type of posterior wall fracture is different from isolated acetabular posterior wall fracture (AO/OTA62-A1). The aim of this study is to compare the morphology of the posterior wall fragments of these two fracture patterns using computed tomography (CT) scans. All measured data were compared, and the differences between the groups (acetabular both-column fractures with posterior wall involvement were included in group A, and acetabular isolated posterior wall fractures were included in group B) were significant (P ≤ 0.05), including the direction angle, displacement, articular surface-posterior cortex ratio and articular surface area of the fracture fragment. The intraclass correlation coefficient of the measurements included inter-observer (ICC = 0.860) and intra-observer (ICC = 0.853). The morphology of the posterior wall fragments associated with both-column fractures is significantly different from that in isolated acetabular posterior wall fractures, and the treatment of the posterior wall fragment involved in both-column fractures of the acetabulum should be different from that of isolated acetabular posterior wall fractures.