Assessment of Tibial Morphology following Proximal Tibial Neutral Wedge Osteotomy for Treatment of Excessive Tibial Plateau Angle in 14 Dogs

Introduction: Various techniques have been described to correct excessive tibial plateau angles (eTPA) in dogs with cranial cruciate ligament disease. The purpose of this study was to assess tibial alteration following proximal tibial neutral wedge osteotomy (PTNWO) in cases of eTPA. We hypothesized that there would be (1) no difference between virtual correction (vPTNWO) and clinical data (cPTNWO), and (2) no difference in TPA correction error between groups.

Materials and Methods: Fourteen dogs that underwent PTNWO for correction of eTPA were included. Tibial length, mechanical cranial distal tibial angle (mCrDTA), and TPA were measured on pre- and postcorrection sagittal plane radiographs in clinical cases and following virtual correction using orthopaedic planning software. Percent change from baseline was determined for tibial measurements as well as deviation from target TPA. Descriptive statistics were reported for the clinical data and the data compared between vPTNWO and cPTNWO.

Results: Median postcorrection TPA was 8.05° (3.8–13.8°). Clinical cases under-corrected target TPA compared to virtual correction (mean of 3.32 ± 2.96° and 0.05 ± 1.25°, respectively; p = 0.008). There was no difference in percent change from baseline for tibial measurements when clinical cases were compared to virtual correction with PTNWO.

Discussion/Conclusion: There was no significant difference between virtual correction and patient-matched clinical data with PTNWO, allowing us to accept our primary hypothesis. This technique resulted in under-correction of the target TPA in clinical cases compared to virtual correction data, but both groups achieved clinically acceptable TPAs. The PTNWO can be considered in dogs with eTPA and resulted minimal tibial length alteration.

Acknowledgements: There was no proprietary interest or funding provided for this project.

Publication History

Article published online:
11 September 2023