Growth Plate Fractures In Children: Why They’re Not As Devastating As They Can Seem

A genitor bracing for the prognosis of their child’s breached bony mightiness perceive “growth sheet fracture” and instantly deliberation unfixable harm has been done.

Certainly, maturation sheet fractures should beryllium diagnosed and treated promptly. Pediatric fractures successful wide heal otherwise than big fractures and tin impact a child’s aboriginal maturation potential. Growth sheet fractures airs further risks—mainly the imaginable for a deformity that tin make months oregon possibly years down the road—and tin beryllium hard to place connected a modular X-ray, making an introspection by a pediatric orthopedist oregon different adept successful children’s skeletal injuries much critical.

“In the agelong term, you tin get limb magnitude discrepancies oregon an angular deformity wherever portion of the maturation sheet shuts down from the trauma and different portion keeps growing. That’s the main happening you interest astir aft a maturation sheet fracture,” says Philip K. McClure, M.D., FAAOS, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing successful limb lengthening and reconstruction, and adjunct manager of the International Center for Limb Lengthening astatine the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics (RIAO), a LifeBridge Health center.

However, a maturation sheet fracture isn’t arsenic bleak arsenic its sanction mightiness suggest. Here’s wherefore outcomes are often favorable with punctual attraction and attraction adjacent if a deformity yet does develop:

What is simply a maturation plate?

As tin beryllium inferred from the name, maturation plates power however bones grow, determining their magnitude and shape. Made up of cartilage, they are located astatine the ends of agelong bones (the thighbone and the metacarpal bones successful your hands, for example), adjacent joints. Growth plates vanish erstwhile a kid reaches maturity (or has afloat grown), but they are the past information of children’s bones to harden, which is wherefore they’re truthful susceptible to wounded during the maturation process.

A maturation sheet tin fracture the aforesaid mode a bony tin fracture. Growth sheet fractures are commonly caused by falls. They tin besides hap during information successful sports specified arsenic football, shot oregon gymnastics. Also, they tin hap gradually owed to repetitive accent connected the bone, which tin effect from overtraining. Recreational activities similar skateboarding, biking and trampolining besides enactment children astatine accrued hazard of a maturation sheet fracture.

Technically, each increasing children are astatine hazard of maturation sheet fractures, but boys much truthful than girls due to the fact that it takes boys longer to decorativeness growing. Growth sheet fractures typically hap successful the little legs, forearms and fingers. The contiguous symptoms—pain and swelling—will consciousness a batch similar those of immoderate different fracture, which is much crushed for children to spot an orthopedist oregon different skeletal maturation specializer successful the lawsuit of a fracture to find if a maturation sheet has been damaged.

Is country necessary?

The hazard of aboriginal problems resulting from maturation sheet fractures volition beryllium connected aggregate factors, including the child’s age. Growth sheet fractures thin to beryllium little consequential if they hap adjacent the extremity of growth. (Usually, maturation plates successful the arms and legs vanish astatine property 14 successful girls and property 16 successful boys.)

“A 16-year-old lad who suffers a maturation sheet fracture—once you get the fracture fixed and it heals, it’s improbable to origin problems for him, whereas successful a six-year-old boy, it tin beryllium a precise antithetic communicative due to the fact that adjacent if you get the fracture to heal and align nicely, the kid inactive mightiness necessitate attraction down the enactment for a deformity,” McClure says.

That interest for what’s besides known arsenic a “growth arrest,” which tin origin a bony to turn unevenly and go crooked adjacent aft a fracture heals, is wherefore “some children should proceed to person follow-up visits with a specializer until they’ve finished growing, into the precocious teenage years,” McClure says.

With due treatment, astir maturation sheet fractures heal without complications. And portion each maturation sheet fractures request treatment, not each of them volition necessitate surgery. “Some benignant of immobilization is astir ever needed, but astir maturation sheet fractures tin beryllium repositioned without country and past held successful a formed portion they heal,” McClure says.

Also, it is important to cognize that deformities tin beryllium corrected though a limb lengthening process oregon osteotomy (surgery that involves cutting and reshaping the bone).

“Some patients get the consciousness that if they make a deformity, there’s thing that tin beryllium done astir it, but that’s not true. Even radical who’ve had a deformity for 10 oregon 20 years tin beryllium corrected successful astir cases,” McClure says. “Deformities tin beryllium treated astatine astir immoderate age, easy into a person’s 60s, though aft longer periods of clip arthritis and different complications tin arise.”

RIAO has a Pediatric Fracture Clinic that offers same- and next-day appointments 5 days a week astatine Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and connected Mondays astatine Foundry Row successful Owings Mills, Maryland. If you are seeking fracture attraction for your child, delight telephone 410-601-BONE (2663) to marque an assignment with our adept pediatric orthopedic team.

Call 410-601-WELL oregon sojourn lifebridgehealth.org to larn much astir each different services offered by LifeBridge Health, including specialty attraction and assemblage events.