Category Archives: Adolescent Knee Injuries
Your child is complaining of leg pain, and you put it down to growing pains. But at what point should you see a medical expert? Dave Duffy explains. I’m always a little cautious about the term ‘growing pains’. It’s what we call a diagnosis of exclusion – that is, you don’t look for specific symptomsContinue Reading
Rates of paediatric and adolescent ACL reconstruction have increased 29-fold over the last 20 years. But why? A recent report into paediatric and adolescent ACL reconstruction reached the encouraging conclusion that the “risk of serious complications, including further surgery for growth disturbance is very low.” But if you’re not a knee surgeon, it’s the precedingContinue Reading
Yorkshire Knee Clinic’s Dave Duffy explores why a 12-month layoff from sport may be the right solution for young athletes with ligament damage. A few years ago, if your child suffered a sports injury that resulted in ligament damage, the standard recommendation would have been a six to nine month break from sports to giveContinue Reading
The case against ACL repair
Prof. Nick London has concerns about those marketing ACL repair as a viable option for children and young people. Earlier this year, my Yorkshire Knee Clinic colleague Jim Newman published a post which looked at the worrying survival rates of ACL repairs (as opposed to ACL reconstructions). I’m not going to repeat Jim’s points (althoughContinue Reading
Why are more young Australians having ACL reconstructions? Not so long ago, Christopher Vertullo, associate professor and director of Knee Research Australia rarely had to treat patients aged under 15. Visits to paediatric wards were thankfully scarce. “Now every week I have to go there,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald recently. His experiences promptedContinue Reading
As a new report shows that childhood obesity levels are leading to hip replacements in children as young as ten, Yorkshire Knee Clinic’s Dave Duffy explains why weight is only one part of the jigsaw. Last month, an article in the Telegraph raised the issue of joint replacement surgery in the young caused by obesity.Continue Reading
What are growing pains?
When an adolescent complains of knee, limb and joint pain, the temptation is to place it in the catch-all category of ‘growing pains’. So, what are growing pains, and how can you tell when the problem is something more? Growing pains typically appear in children aged between three and twelve. They usually affect the lowerContinue Reading
