Osgood-Schlatter Disease Knee Health

A very common condition that causes pain for kids and teenagers is something called Osgood-Schlatter Disease or OSD for short. Its full name does sound kind of scary however in reality it is not only very common but also not that serious as it is not a disease caused by some bacteria or virus but rather and injury that is caused by the adolescent overusing his or her knees.

This condition mainly is caused by one of two things: the fact that kids simply experience a growth spurt or if they do different physical activities such as sports, dancing so actively moving their knee and subjecting it to vigorous movements. Growth spurts mean that the bones along with all of the muscles and other parts of our body grow and change very rapidly and usually our bodies aren’t ready for such a drastic change in that short period of time which is why the tendons can become inflamed as they are the thing that connects our muscles to our bones and need to stretch very quickly too. But different activities especially physical ones such as doing sports put a lot of stress on the knees or rather on the bones and muscles especially in the knees and because tendons hold these two parts together the stress can cause them to become inflamed. However even teens that aren’t that active and don’t grow very quickly too can have this caused simply by growth of your bones.

If girls at the age of 8 to 13 and 10 to 15 year old boys experience inflammation and pain in the area just below their knees then most likely they suffer from OSD because the area right under the knee is where the main tendon in the knee is. This tendon connects the kneecap to the shinbone or tibia and allows us to bend our knees and move around. But if the tendon is inflamed then we not only experience swelling in that area but also pain and reduction in motion which is not good for our knees or pleasant for us.

The treatment of this condition is quite simple because the main focus of the treatment is to reduce swelling and pain but you still should visit your doctor so that he or she can confirm that you indeed have OSD and you don’t suffer from a more serious injury. If the doctor does diagnose OSD the first treatment is rest and some stretching and strengthening exercises that will help keep the knee moving and will help gain back the regular range of motion to the knee once it is healthy again. On top of that often doctors prescribe medication too that will help with the inflammation and pain from the injury so that you don’t experience any discomfort during recovery of you knee. Only in the most serious cases or if the swelling and pain doesn’t go away once the growth spur is over or the treatment is complete doctors recommend a surgery.

As I said before the Osgood – Schlatter disease isn’t something that you need to be afraid of because it is common as well as easily treatable. If you complete your treatment correctly and do everything your doctor says you to do the injury should heal and all of the pain and inflammation should go away within 12 to 24 months at most but more often OSD can be treated in only few weeks. And if you want to prevent this type of overuse injury from happening in the first place you can increase the flexibility of your knees and the muscles around and close to it by doing different leg exercises as well as guard your knees when you are doing any activities that put stress on them by using knee pads for example.


Mathew Foster

I am Mathew Foster – an enthusiast of sports who not only regularly practices different sports, but also has a deep interest in it.

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