Clinical efficacy analysis of arthroscopically assisted Orthcord suture fixation in the treatment of tibial intercondylar eminence fractures: a retrospective case-control study

Background: To explore the efficacy of arthroscopically assisted fixation of type II and type III tibial intercondylar eminence fractures with Orthcord sutures. Method: A retrospective analysis was performed on 80 patients with intercondylar eminence fractures admitted to our hospital from April 2020 to March 2024. According to different surgical methods, the patients were divided into special suture fixation group (n = 30), cannulated screw fixation group (n = 24), and wire fixation group (n = 26). The suture group used arthroscopic orthcord sutures to fix tibial intercondylar eminence fractures, and the cannulated screw group used cannulated compression screws for fixation. Patients in the wire group underwent arthroscopic wire fixation. The basic information of all patients was collected and followed up for 1 year. The Lysholm score of the knee joint was performed at 3 months and 1 year after surgery. The patients' general data, surgical conditions, operation time, blood loss, hospitalization costs, postoperative recovery (Lysholm score of knee joint at 3 months and 1 year after surgery) and other data were analyzed by variance analysis. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: There was no statistical difference in the general data of all patients. One-year follow-up showed that all patients had achieved bone healing without infection, displacement, or bone malformation. The hospitalization time in the wire group was (11 ± 1.02) days, the screw group was (11.58 ± 1.61) days, and the Orhtcord suture group was shortened to (10.03 ± 1.07) days. The differences among the three groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05). At the same time, the cost of Orhtcord suture surgery (1310.7 ± 0.29) $ was significantly lower than that of the other two groups (P＜0.05). The operation time of the suture group (68.13±1.11min) was significantly shorter than that of the wire group (76.76±11.57min) and the screw group (90.62±1.99min) (P＜0.05). In the follow-up, the score of Orhtcord suture 3 months after operation (94.07±2.72 points) was better than that of the wire group (90.23±5.23 points) and the screw group (90.37±5.41 points); the difference was statistically significant (P＜0.05). However, there was no statistically significant difference in the Lysholm score of the three groups of patients 6 months after operation (96.26±1.89, 96.33±2.44, 97.3±1.70) (P＞0.05). Conclusion: The use of Orhtcord sutures in the arthroscopically assisted treatment of intercondylar ridge fractures can shorten the length of hospital stay and surgery, while greatly reducing hospitalization costs. It can achieve better short-term (3 months) recovery effects while avoiding secondary surgery, and ultimately show no weaker fixation effect than conventional screws and wires when fully weight-bearing is restored.