Abstract

Our study evaluates differences in fracture healing, clinical outcome and donor site morbidity between iliac crest bone graft and contra lateral proximal tibial bone graft utilized for internal fixation of displaced tibial plateau fractures. In 34 patients requiring bone grafting, iliac crest was utilized in 16 cases and proximal tibia in the remaining 18. Fracture union was achieved in all patients in either group at a mean period of 14 weeks with no difference in the functional knee scores between the groups. The iliac crest group showed significantly higher visual analogue pain scores in the immediate post-operative period and greater donor site complications like superficial wound infection, incisional hernia and chronic pain compared to the proximal tibial group. Contra lateral proximal tibia offers a viable alternative to iliac crest as a donor site for bone graft with adequacy of graft quantity, ease of graft harvest and lesser donor site morbidity.