Osgood Schlatter's disease

Essay by mule54University, Bachelor'sA+, January 2007

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After football practice in Jr. High, I began to ascend a flight of stairs; however, this particular moment was a lot more painful than before. I had been experiencing pain below my knee for quite a while and I had just set it aside but now I had a large amount of swelling and pain. Upon consultation with a doctor I was informed that I had Osgood-Schlatter disease. Osgood-Schlatter disease is a disease that often occurs in adolescents and is characterized by inflammation of the bump on the tibia below the knee known as the tibial tuberosity. Osgood-Schlatter is a very painful disease that is hard, if at all possible, to prevent and cause long term complications to its victims.

In order to understand Osgood Schlatter an individual needs to know the basic anatomy of the knee. As with the other joints of the body, the knee consists of bones, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and muscles.

There are 4 main bones of the knee. These bones are the femur, fibula, tibia, and patella. In addition to these bones there is cartilage located between the femur and tibia. The main muscle groups of the knee contain the hamstrings and quadriceps. There are ligaments which run lateral and medial as well as anterior and posterior in the knee. There is also the patellar tendon which connects the patella to the tibial tuberosity. This is the location in which Osgood-Schlatter occurs.

As stated earlier, Osgood-Schlatter usually occurs in kids ranging from the ages of 10-14. Many of these young athletes are involved in sports which involve significant running and jumping. Osgood-Schlatter is caused by stress on the patellar tendon which is pulls on the tibial tuberosity when the quadriceps is contracted. This usually follows a growth spurt. While the tendon pulls...