OsGood Schlatter’s and Sever’s Disease
OsGood Schlatter and Sever’s Disease are two of the most common growth plate injuries that kids will deal with from the ages of 8-15. It is not like a disease that you can get from others but rather a lesion that develops in the knee and foot, usually from activity. The more active a kid is, the more susceptible he/she will be to developing the pain. Both injuries are a nuisance to the player and can cause severe pain while active. Both are fairly easy to diagnose without the use of x-ray but x-rays will confirm the lesion. The pain for Osgood’s will be in the knee usually below the patella and Sever’s will be in the foot, either in the bottom of the heel or the backside of the heel. Other than the difference in location, these two can be presented together because they are basically the same injury. Many parents that have kids dealing with either of these don’t think much of it initially because their kid will complain quite a bit after activity but the next day they will say it doesn’t hurt anymore. Most parents will start out with either their primary care doctor or an orthopedic doctor. Once it has been diagnosed by either exam or x-ray the doctor will usually prescribe stretching program and tell the parents to limit activity until the pain goes away. It is not until the pain doesn’t go away that parents begin to seek other treatment options because it can be very frustrating when no one can help get their kid back to activity without pain.
Treatment at The Tx Room for Osgood Schlatter’s and Sever’s Disease
At The Tx Room, we specialize in treating both of these conditions and will get rid of the pain in a limited number of treatments. Both OsGood’s and Sever’s are growing pains. So, it should make since that the pain usually starts up when a child hits a growth spurt. As the bones grow, the growth plates located in the knee or foot can get irritated due to the activity level. The more a kid runs, jumps, skips, etc., the more stress will be placed on the growth plates, most commonly in the knee or foot and pain will ensue. For OsGood’s, the pain arises when the stress at the patellar tendon insertion into the knee (tibial tubercle) is too great for the growth plate to handle. For Sever’s, the pain arises when the stress at the achilles tendon insertion into the heel (calcaneus) is too great for the growth plate to handle. In both Osgood’s and Sever’s, the tendon insertion at the growth plate is actually pulled forward away from the rest of the bone as seen in the picture. So, how is it treated? Because the bone is pulled forward from the stresses of the tendon, we treat by adding manual pressure to the area of pain and it allows the lesion to calm down where the tendon attaches to the bone. The elimination of pain can be instant. Once we have finished a session, which usually last for 20 minutes, the child can tell a difference and walk out without the same pain. It normally takes 3-5 sessions to completely finish the treatment plan and we do expect FULL resolution from the PAIN OsGood Schlatter’s or Sever’s is causing the child.
It needs to be clarified that we are treating to help with the pain and not claiming to fix Osgood Schlatter’s or Sever’s Disease. Both are normal lesions of the body and the body will proceed to heal on its own. Once the growth plates has reached maturity around the ages of 16-18, it will close and the pain will subside and not be a problem going forward. Depending on how severe the stress was at the knee, the child could develop a knot below the patella that may never go away. If your athlete is suffering w/ either of these conditions, call today to see how we could help.
