Osgood-Schlatter Disease Treatment
Updated: Nov 18, 2022
Osgood-Schlatter Disease
Osgood-Schlatter Disease is a condition that causes pain in the front of the knee. It is extremely prevalent in people going through growth spurts. The largest growth spurts take place between 8-13 years for females and 10-15 years for males. Between the ages of 12 and 15 years old, it is estimated that 9.8% of people suffer from Osgood-Schlatter Disease. It is slightly more common in males with a prevalence of 11.4% compared to 8.3% of females. Interestingly, 20-30% of patients experience Osgood-Schlatter Disease in both legs according to a study by Smith and Varacallo.
Now that we understand how prevalent Osgood-Schlatter Disease is, it is important to understand what causes it. The quadriceps muscles come together to form the quadriceps tendon above your patella (kneecap). The quadriceps tendon attaches the quadriceps muscles to the top of your patella. The bottom of your patella is attached to your tibia via the patellar tendon. More specifically, your patellar tendon attaches to your tibial tuberosity, which is a small bump on the front of your tibia. This image below highlights the basic anatomy of the area.
The tibial tuberosity is very close to your growth plate. I discussed growth plates in a previous blog about Sever’s Disease, which is a similar condition except it affects the achilles tendon. Read more about Sever’s Disease