Assessing Soft Tissue Perfusion Using Laser-Assisted Angiography in Tibial Plateau and Pilon Fractures: A Pilot Study

To determine whether skin perfusion surrounding tibial plateau and pilon fractures is associated with the Tscherne classification for severity of soft tissue injury. The secondary aim was to determine if soft tissue perfusion improves from the time of injury to the time of definitive fracture fixation in fractures treated using a staged protocol.

Prospective cohort study.

Academic trauma center.

Eight pilon fracture patients and 19 tibial plateau fracture patients who underwent open reduction internal fixation.

Skin perfusion (fluorescence units) as measured by LA-ICGA.

Six patients were classified as Tscherne grade 0, 9 as grade 1, 10 as grade 2, and 2 as grade 3. Perfusion decreased by 14 fluorescence units (95% confidence interval, -21 to -6; P < 0.01) with each increase in Tscherne grade. Sixteen patients underwent staged fixation with an external fixator (mean time to definitive fixation 14.1 days). The mean perfusion increased significantly at the time of definitive fixation by a mean of 13.9 fluorescence units (95% confidence interval 4.8-22.9; P = 0.01).

LA-ICGA perfusion measures are associated with severity of soft tissue injury surrounding orthopaedic trauma fractures and appear to improve over time when fractures are stabilized in an external fixator. Further research is warranted to investigate whether objective perfusion measures are predictive of postoperative wound healing complications and whether this tool can be used to effectively guide timing of safe surgical fixation.

Prognostic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.