Increasing participation in youth sports has led to the growing incidence of acute and overuse injuries. In skeletally immature children, growth plate is the weak link, producing a spectrum of findings ranging from reversible physeal widening to irreversible adaptive remodeling, physeal fracture, and premature physeal closure. If undiagnosed and untreated, these changes can lead to deformity and premature osteoarthritis. This presentation will review the normal growth plate complex and highlight physeal-specific pathologies that can occur in the shoulders and knees of youth athletes (proximal humeral epiphysiolysis, physeal and avulsion fractures, glenoid remodeling, osteochondritis dissecans, and transphyseal bar).
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Department of Radiology and Division of Orthopaedics and Hospital for Special Surgery Department of Radiology.
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