Table 1.

Surgical exposure to posterolateral quadrant tibial plateau fractures: an anatomic comparison of posterolateral vs posteromedial approaches

	Posterolateral approach	Posteromedial approach
Skin incision	Direct straight incision	Indirect inverted L-shaped incision
Superficial structure	Lateral sural cutaneous nerve	Medial sural cutaneous nerve
		Greater saphenous vein and saphenous nerve
Deep exposure	Via the lateral board of lateral gastrocnemius head and soleus	Via the medial board of medial gastrocnemius head and soleus
Expose of posterolateral tibial plateau	1. Directly, part of the articular surface can be seen	1. Indirect, direct vision of the articular surface is impossible
	2. Superiorly traction of the popliteal muscle or partial dissection	2. Lateral and inferiorly traction of the popliteal muscle
	3. Dissection of the posterolateral corner structure	3. No dissection of the AVN or PLC
	4. Partially shielded by fibular head
Plate placement	Straightly	Obliquely
Direction of screws	Direct to the middle or medial side	Direct to the lateral side
Dangerous structure	CPN, ATA	Popliteal vessels
Remove the plate	Very hard, may injury the ATA or ATV	Hard for strong persons
Clinical usage	Isolated PL fractures	Bicondylar posterior fractures
	Complex fractures	Complex fractures