What is Pediatric Orthopedics?
Pediatric Orthopedics is the study and treatment of growing bones, joints and muscles. Pediatric Orthopedists use many techniques, including observation of growth, physical therapy, braces and splints, and occasionally surgery to treat various conditions such as congenital deformities, injuries, neurological disorders, and scoliosis. These conditions are discussed in general below, with links being added to more specific information as time goes by.
Variations of Normal Anatomy & Congenital Deformities
Frequently, young children and adolescents have conditions that are variations of normal anatomy. These include children who toe-in or toe-out excessively, children with “bad posture” such as round-back or sway-back, and children who are delayed in learning to walk or have unusual patterns of walking such as “toe walking”. Often these problems are variations of normal developmental patterns and do not represent an underlying disease. In such cases, the child’s growth and patterns of walking, posture, and muscular development need to be observed over time in order to establish whether the child’s growth pattern will return to normal spontaneously.
What is congenital Skeletal Deformity?
A small percentage of children have birth defects. Those defects might be due to genetic disorders or interference of early skeletal development. The defects or failures might be at the period of limb generation, separation, or maturation. They include spinal problems such as spina bifida, apparent limb deformities such as clubfoot, obscure limb deformities such as developmental dysplasia of the hip, or other congentital defects such as polydactyly or syndactyly. Pediatric Orthopedists frequently follow these children through years of growth and into adult life.
What are childhood Injuries?
Children often break bones. With these fractures there is often a potential injury to the growth centers of the skeleton. Pediatric Orthopedists evaluate the child for potential growth problems that may happen after the injury heals and treat growth disturbance if it occurs. Appropriate treatment of fractures, sprains and dislocations can ensure minimal disturbance of function and a quick return to normal childhood growth and activity.
What is Pediatric Sports Injury?
Pediatric Sports Medicine is an important part of health care. Children who engage in activities like soccer, karate, and skateboarding may have acute injuries such as broken bones, sprains, and dislocations. Many times chronic stress injuries occur, such as fractures, tendinitis, and apophysitis. Examples are Little Leaguer’s Elbow, Osgood-Schlatter’s disease of the knee, and Sever’s Disease of the foot. Treatment of these injuries is usually simple and seldom requires surgery. However, adequate knowledge of how to prevent them and how to help them heal smoothly is very crucial for the children’s future sports potential.
What is a neuromuscular Disease?
Many patients seen by Pediatric Orthopedists have neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, or the family of diseases known as muscular dystrophies. Most of these disorders result in muscle imbalance and deformity in the areas involved, such as drop foot, scoliosis, or paralytic clubfoot. Children with cerebral palsy or spina bifida frequently require bracing or surgery to improve their ability to function to their greatest potential. Before best treatments can be planned, motion analysis with the information of the time-distance parameters, kinematics, kinetics, and muscle roles during the gait is very helpful to the pediatric orthopedists.
What are scoliosis and kyphosis?
These conditions are deformities of the spinal column and may occur at any time before or after birth, but are more frequent during the adolescent growth spurt. Scoliosis is curvature of the spine seen in about 5% of teenage girls. Kyphosis is an excessive round-back deformity common in teenagers.
What is leg length discrepancy?
This condition is due to the loss of symmetry of bilateral leg growth. The etiology might be due to congenital defect of one limb, congenital hemihypotrophy or hemihypertrophy, dislocation of unilateral joint (such as DDH), fractures and injuries (especially the growth plate), and many possible diseases. Treatment includes careful observation of the disprepancy during growth and surgical interventions. Surgeries can be done to shorten the long leg or to lengthen the short leg, depending on the preference of the surgeons, the expectation of the patient, and the safety of the procedures.