🎧 MSRA Deep Dive: Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease
Welcome to another focused MSRA revision episode! In this session, we break down Osgood-Schlatter’s disease – a high-yield orthopaedics topic that often appears in exams and clinics alike.
🦵 What is Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease?
A common cause of knee pain in adolescents, especially those going through growth spurts and playing high-impact sports. It’s an overuse injury at the tibial tuberosity where the patellar tendon inserts, leading to pain, swelling, and a prominent bump below the kneecap.
📌 Key Features:
• 👦 More common in active adolescent boys
• 🏃♂️ Linked to repetitive activities like jumping and running
• 📍 Pain and swelling at the tibial tuberosity
• 🧘♀️ Pain worsens with activity, improves with rest
• 🧠 Diagnosis is clinical in most cases – imaging is not always needed
🧬 Pathophysiology Made Simple:
Growth spurts → bones elongate faster than muscles/tendons → increased tension on patellar tendon → microtrauma at tibial tuberosity → inflammation and pain.
🔍 Differential Diagnoses to Consider:
• Patellar tendinopathy ("jumper’s knee")
• Patellofemoral pain syndrome ("runner’s knee")
• Stress fractures
• Sinding-Larsen-Johansson syndrome
• Osteochondritis dissecans
• Slipped capital femoral epiphysis (referred pain!)
Always examine the hip in any child presenting with knee pain!
🛠️ Management Approach:
Conservative treatment is king 👑
• 🧊 Rest, ice, NSAIDs
• 🧘♂️ Physiotherapy: stretching & strengthening (especially quads/hamstrings)
• 👟 Activity modification
• 💉 Surgery is rare – only in persistent post-growth cases with ossicle removal
• ❌ Avoid steroid injections
📈 Prognosis:
• Symptoms usually resolve with skeletal maturity
• Bony prominence may persist but is typically asymptomatic
• Excellent long-term outcomes with conservative care
• Red flag: severe pain, unilaterality, or failure to respond → consider imaging
🧠 Memory Tips:
👦⚽ Teenage boy + growth spurt + anterior knee pain = Think Osgood-Schlatter’s
🧱 Painful bony lump = Inflamed tibial tuberosity
📉 Pain with activity, 📈 relief with rest
🎓 Free Revision Resources:
1️⃣ Revision Notes:
https://www.passthemsra.com/topic/osgood-schlatters-disease-revision-notes/
2️⃣ Flashcards:
https://www.passthemsra.com/topic/osgood-schlatters-disease-flashcards/
3️⃣ Accordion Q&A Notes:
https://www.passthemsra.com/topic/osgood-schlatters-disease-accordion-qa-notes/
4️⃣ Rapid Quiz:
https://www.passthemsra.com/topic/osgood-schlatters-disease-rapid-quiz/
🧪 Full Quiz Link:
https://www.passthemsra.com/quizzes/osgood-schlatters-disease/
🧠 Explore more MSK content:
https://www.passthemsra.com/courses/msk-for-the-msra/
🎯 Hashtags for Revision Discovery:
#MSRA #MSRARevision #OsgoodSchlatters #OrthopaedicsMSRA #MSKMedicine #PassTheMSRA #MedStudentRevision #GPTraining #KneePain
