Osgood-Schlatter disease
Related people
Since this is a condition rather than a disease, Osgood-Schlatter condition would be the correct term.
Osteochondrosis of the tuberosity of the tibia. One of the most common causes of knee pain in the adolescent, Osgood-Schlatter condition is an orthopaedic problem involving the leg just below the knee cap where the tendon inserts into a bony prominence, the tibial tubercle. Clinical signs and symptoms include pain in the medial area of the knee, heat, tenderness and local swelling with prominence at the tibial tuberosity. The pain is aggravated by active extension. In about 25 percent of the cases it presents bilaterally. Some 50 percent of the patients have a history of precipitating trauma. The condition may result from a single injury or, more frequently, repeated flexing of the knee against a tight quadriceps muscle, causing microtrauma to the tibial tuberosity. The injury occurs most commonly in rapidly growing and active adolescents between the age of 11 and 15, boys being three times more often affected than girls. Girls are typically 10-11 years old, boys are typically 13-14 years old. The condition is generally benign and the problem usually disappears later in adolescence without treatment.
According to one author, the clinical syndrome was first described in 1891 by Sir James Paget (1814-1899).
Bibliography
- R. B. Osgood:
Lesions of the tibia tubercle occurring during adolescence.
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1903, 148: 114-117. - C. Schlatter:
Verletzungen des schnabelförmigen Forsatzes der oberen Tibiaepiphyse.
[Bruns] Beiträge zur klinischen Chirurgie, 1903, 38: 874-887.