Free Knee CT Viewer for Plateau Fractures and Post-Op Hardware

Getting From Disc To Report

Why A Knee CT Gets Ordered Instead Of An MRI

Surgeons reach for CT when the question is about bone geometry rather than soft tissue. After a tibial plateau fracture, CT is what actually drives the Schatzker classification, splitting a simple lateral wedge from a bicondylar fracture with central depression, because the thin axial slices show the fracture lines and the depressed articular surface far more precisely than an MRI or a plain film ever could. The same logic applies to patellar fractures, where the number and displacement of fragments changes whether a surgeon wires, screws, or partially excises the patella, and to tibial spine avulsions, where CT confirms whether the fragment is still anatomically reduced.

CT is also the default check after cruciate ligament reconstruction. It measures tunnel position relative to the native footprint, flags tunnel widening that can signal graft failure or hardware reaction, and, further out, screens for loose intra-articular bodies that an MRI can miss when they sit against cortical bone. When healing stalls, CT is the study that confirms or rules out non-union at an osteotomy or fracture site. Before knee arthroplasty or a corrective osteotomy, CT-based planning captures rotational alignment and bone stock in a way a standard X-ray cannot, which is why many pre-operative protocols now call for a dedicated knee CT alongside standing long-leg films.

What A Knee CT Dataset Actually Contains

A modern knee CT is acquired as a helical volume of sub-millimeter axial slices, then reconstructed twice from that same raw data: once on a sharp bone kernel that makes cortical margins and fracture lines crisp, and once on a smoother soft-tissue kernel that reduces the edge noise the bone kernel introduces in muscle and fat. Because the acquired voxels are isotropic, the scanner or the viewer can reformat that single axial pass into sagittal and coronal planes without any loss of detail, and, for complex fracture patterns or pre-operative planning, into a 3D surface render that rotates freely to show displacement from angles a flat slice cannot.

What The Viewer Puts In Your Hands

Making Sense Of The Report Wording

Knee CT reports lean on a handful of recurring phrases. “Articular depression” is reported in millimeters and describes how far the joint surface of the plateau has sunk below its normal contour; larger numbers generally push toward surgical elevation rather than casting. “Condylar widening” refers to lateral spread of the tibial condyles, which changes limb alignment and factors into fixation planning. “Comminution” means the bone has broken into more than two fragments, and the report will usually describe how the fragments relate to each other and to the joint line. Post-operative studies add “hardware position” language, noting whether screws or plates sit where they were placed, whether a tunnel has widened around a graft, and whether there is any lucency suggesting loosening.

Where CT Stops And MRI Takes Over

CT is unmatched for cortical bone: fracture lines, fragment position, hardware, and healing are all easiest to judge on a CT slice. It is a poor tool, though, for the meniscus, articular cartilage, and the cruciate and collateral ligaments, all of which show up as similar soft-tissue density on CT and only separate from each other on MRI's contrast-sensitive sequences. A torn ACL, a meniscal tear, or a cartilage defect can sit on a CT slice looking completely unremarkable. That is why plateau fractures are worked up with CT for the bone and often paired with an MRI when a concurrent ligament or meniscus injury is suspected, rather than one study standing in for the other.

Supported Knee CT Formats

Frequently Asked Questions

3D Rendering For Plateau And Osteotomy Planning

Knee CT is usually acquired as a true volumetric series, so it reconstructs well into MPR and 3D. Fragment separation, depression depth, and hardware trajectory are easier to communicate on a rotating 3D render than on a stack of flat slices, though sharpness still depends on the original slice thickness, spacing, and reconstruction kernel chosen at the scanner.

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