Pediatrics News

A strong association was seen between slipped capital femoral epiphysis, area-level socioeconomic deprivation and pre-disease obesity in a study. Investigators identified that children presenting with knee or thigh pain, rather than hip pain, contributed to pediatric patients being less likely to be promptly diagnosed with slipped capital femoral epiphysis.

Investigators found 79% of children who had ever been toe-walkers spontaneously developed typical gait by 10 years of age and did so without intervention or contractures of the ankle dorsiflexion.

When it comes to youth sports, often it is all about “keeping up with the Joneses.” Young athletes are specializing in a single sport at earlier ages with the belief that more hours focused on one sport will result in them becoming a better athlete. However, research has shown this may not be the case and putting more hours into a sport at a young age may have such consequences as burnout and overuse injuries.

Female athlete triad refers to the abnormal menses and affected bone health, such as increased risk of stress fractures and osteoporosis, that comes from an imbalance between an athlete’s nutrition and exercise (referred to as low energy availability). The negative consequences of the female athlete triad can be significant and can impact an athlete’s performance, risk of injury, long-term risk of osteoporosis, fertility and overall health. The best way to treat the female athlete triad is through prevention and education. It is important that there is a positive culture around weight and body image in our young female athletes and that signs and symptoms of the female athlete triad are addressed promptly. There are a number of useful and validated questionnaires to identify these risks. Some of the things that can be evaluated include injuries, particularly stress fractures, history of or current abnormal periods and weight loss or other signs of eating disorder. To go further in depth, there are a number of questions to identify those with current risk factors for an eating disorder. The treatment for the female athlete triad is a team approach and often multiple members of the health care team, including nutrition, medical and psychological services, are involved. Studies have shown that the longer the duration of the female athlete triad, the more negative consequences are likely to develop, particularly to bone health. Athletes may present to the doctor’s office with a stress fracture and it is imperative the physician asks the necessary questions to identify risk factors. When risk factors of the female athlete triad are identified, treatment will be focused on education and counseling in order to prevent the short-term and long-term consequences.

BOULDER, Colo.— Adolescents with a sports-related concussion had worse initial impairments in overall quality of life compared with adolescents who had a sports-related fracture, according to a speaker at the International Extreme Sports Medicine Congress.

Results presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting showed high school baseball pitchers experienced a variation in pain and overuse symptoms during the season, which peaked by week 5.

In adolescents without hip pathology, results published in the Journal of Children’s Orthopaedics showed epiphyseal tilt had no age-specific variations, as well as showed no difference in male and female patients in the superior and anterior plane.

A 12-year-old boy with a past medical history of left iliac crest bone graft for pharyngoplasty/cleft palate repair performed 5 years prior to presentation arrived at our clinic with anterior left hip pain, which has been waxing and waning since the bone graft procedure. He denies any new or recent trauma. During the past month, he noted significant worsening of his pain. The pain was severe enough to keep him out of school for the past 2 weeks. When asked to localize the pain, he demonstrated the ‘C’ sign, cupping his lateral hip with his hand in a ‘C’ shape. He stated the pain does not radiate nor does he endorse mechanical symptoms. The pain is worse at night and it has now limited his weight-bearing to the point of needing crutches to ambulate. He has tried physical therapy (PT), NSAIDs and narcotics without relief of his symptoms. He denied any constitutional symptoms.

OrthoPediatrics Corp. announced it received FDA 510(k) clearance for Femur, the company’s pediatric nailing platform.

In a few days the 19th EFORT Congress will take place in Barcelona. The scientific and educational program has been finalized for several months and another exciting meeting awaits us.