Wednesday, February 2, 2011
A Real Pain in the Knee Osgood- Schlatters in Young Athletes
Wednesday, February 02, 2011 | 
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art_tatto_design_extremeWe all like to encourage our children, especially our teenagers, to come out and participate in sports. There is no doubt that athletics teach teamwork, to help keep kids in shape and keep them occupied. However, the downside is that sometimes growing skeleton of a child I can not keep pace with the demands placed upon the sport.
Increasingly, doctors are reporting cases of knee pain in young athletes, most often between 9 and 14. This condition called Osgood-Schlatters after the doctors who discovered it, is highly treatable, but can be very uncomfortable while active.
Thirty years ago, these pains are often simply dismissed as "growing pains," says Terry Robinson, owner of Grapevine Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine in Grapevine, Texas. However, in the competitive world of school sports today, pain that limits activities can become a real problem. This is when children, parents and coaches begin to find ways to treat the condition, keeping the athlete on the field.
What is Osgood-Schlatters?
Osgood-Schlatters is an inflammatory condition where the bony protrusion below the knee (called the tibial tuberosity). The patella tendon covering is inserted here and overuse can pull away in the bone, causing inflammation. When the new bone grows back, often causing a bony prominence. It most commonly affects men, but most athletes are reporting problems.
According to Dr. Hank D. Bratt Child Orthopedic Specialists in Tucson, Arizona, what happens is simply that the tendons can not keep pace with bone growth, because at this age the bones grow so quickly. As a result, the tendon is stretched too often, the pain and the results.
"This can happen to any body part where you have a major tendon attached to a bone growth, but when it occurs in the knee, Osgood-Schlatters call," says Dr. Bratt.
The main symptoms of Osgood-Schlatters is pain during exercise and when touching the affected area below the kneecap. The pain tends to improve with rest. Other symptoms include swelling below the kneecap and a bone spur in the same area and weakness in the quadriceps.
Kyle Edmiston, 15, had Osgood-Schlatters so badly a couple of years that her mother, Autumn, you can still feel the bumps of bone - and still has a limited range of motion. "I'll never play football, that's for sure," Autumn says, laughing. "I could not bend over to the other players."
"The important thing to remember about Osgood-Schlatters is that it is self-limiting," says Dr. Bratt. "Therefore, we do not do anything to make the patient worse, even in the short term. Therefore, no surgery or injections are commonly used for this disease."
Prevention of this problem to progress to a point where the athlete has to completely stop their activities is fairly easy. The pain and inflammation need to be treated and special exercises added to the routine of the athlete to maintain the condition worse.
The first step is to treat pain and inflammation with a prescription anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen. This ingredient is found in several medications such as Advil and Motrin ® ®. Ice can also help control swelling. If the pain is bad, the child should rest and refrain from activities until it is under control. A good rule of thumb both Robinson and Dr. Bratt agree not to do anything that gets worse or unbearable pain.
Physical Therapy
Although physical therapy is not always advisable or necessary to relieve symptoms canhelp so the athlete can return to sports quickly and safely.
My daughter, Wende, has Osgood-Schlatters three years ago while his classmate, Kyle Edmiston. Our doctor recommended physical therapy, which Wende went for six months. If the Edmistons', it does not cover physical therapy, so I just took the advice of your doctor and treat pain and inflammation with ibuprofen and ice, and Kyle extra stretches before football . Today, Kyle still has occasional problems, while Wendy is relatively painless. If physical therapy can be approved for that or not, Wende certainly helped manage their pain during the softball season.
Terry Robinson said that the most important aspect of physical therapy is the type of patient education, which may include parents and coach. "There's no use putting a child in treatment and change your exercise routine if you go home and sit on the floor with crossed legs to play video games," says Robinson. "In addition to treatment, become aware of what other activities can affect the healing process."
As for the brakes, Dr. Bratt says, although not hurt, it does not really help either. "There are too expensive, so if you want to prove that it's OK, but no real evidence that they do better," he says. "However, if it makes the child feel better, whether physical or psychological, by all means, they wear them."
It is also a good idea for the child to protect your knees during sports by using a soft brace, as the type used in volleyball. This will protect the area from the pain of being beaten by a blow of a ball, another child or a fall, which can make things worse.
In the end, the only real cure for the condition is time. All children get over it, and the pain goes away as your tendons to catch up with bone growth.
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