Teen complains of pain in knee

My first thought is Osgood-Schlatter.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/osgood-schlatter-disease/DS00392

Sozlet has it, it was a major issue for her last fall (soccer season) but since then it's eased a great deal.

It happens during growth spurts.

Does she have any sort of swelling right under her kneecap? Any tenderness there?

At my age, I would put it down to normal aches and pains. At her age, I agree that a visit to a doctor is in order.

Both her knees look the same size so it doesn't appear as if there is any swelling. I would have to touch to see about the tenderness - she just says it is painful - sometimes she will limp a bit.

But when playing she full out runs.

with the sounds of it - 1 in 5 adolscent athletes - basketball, puberty, growth spurts....the one thing is that it just resolves itself. Basically a lump due to growing - growing pains - if this is true I should become a doctor.

Good to know and ask the doctor.

Sozlet had swelling in both knees but only one was painful at first (then both were).

It's a combination of growth spurt and overuse, so it worsening after the basketball camp would make sense, though that could fit with other kinds of injuries too of course.

Sozlet also was able to run all-out -- it hurt most after the games, not during. (Later, as it got worse, it hurt all of the time and hurt more to run.)

Not saying it's definitely Osgood-Schlatter btw, but sounds like it could be.

It's a little more than growing pains, but yes, it's very common.

It resolves itself but that part is a little complicated too. It stops when the growth stops, but that can be a long time.

For sozlet, once we got ahold of what it was and started doing PT and being more careful about overuse, it really hasn't been an issue for her (knock on wood, soccer season is about to restart so we'll see. Have had practices but no games yet).

She also is careful to not do deep knee bends. While she is predisposed (her dad and grandpa both had Osgood-Schlatter), from timing and feedback from various medical types I think it was exacerbated or even brought on by endless frog jumps that her misguided conditioning coach had the girls do last year.

Thanks - it is good to know it could be something like that - that is to outgrow and hopefully won't really impact her. She loves to play and my worry was what if it was something where the dr. says she can no longer play. That would be tough on her.

Yeah. If that's it, now is the time to get on top of it, before it gets really bad.

The worst for us were the last few weeks of soccer season -- she wasn't getting enough rest. The good part about it is that permanent damage is not done by playing with the injury -- if you can stand the pain, exercise is actually better than no exercise. But the pain got really, really bad.

Then she had about 6 weeks of rest between soccer and basketball, and has been fine since.

If it's Osgood-Schlatter, that's not always the result, though. I posted about it on Facebook and a lot of people had stories about having to give up sports because of the pain.

PT helped, but I think it might have been linked to a specific growth spurt too -- it might kick in again if she's in an intense sport and has a growth spurt at the same time. We'll see.

The good thing it isn't that bad - at least like I said she, like your daughter, has not complained about it hurting her while playing. She has afterwards. So for practice she does more shooting and dribbling and has been limiting her rope jumping - the bad thing is rope jumping is the best way to get fast.

And she will still run and play (even outside of basketball) so it appears at least to me as more an annoyance - but obviously were this has come and gone for quite a while we decided to go ahead and make an appointment. She has just begun practicing for winter ball and may play fall aau so that would mean most likely 3 practices a week and tournaments on weekends.

The coming and going for quite a while was what happened with sozlet too. I thought she'd just tweaked something, and took her to the doctor when she just couldn't seem to recover all the way. (I'd keep thinking she was over it, and then she'd play a couple games in a few days, or have an intense practice, and it would be back.)

Ok so we did see the Dr. - a couple of weeks ago. Just been on vacation, etc. since.

She has something different. It is more common in woman and suggested care is to ice after sports, use orthod inserts, and see a Physical therapist to work on exerices to strengthen the knee. She could outgrow or not outgrow it. I believe it is called Patellofemoral syndrome.

But she can play sports and there really isn't any long term damage or anything to worry about just more managing the pain.

In addition to such research, many clinical checks might be recommended for detecting the sort of knee soreness. The particular cause of your knee soreness could often be an infection, gout arthritis or pseudogout, which can only be determined with the help of lab checks instead of image tests. In these diagnostic assessments, the fluid out of your knees might be taken out for research. This treatment is conducted simply by using a hook and mailing the sample to the science lab for a technical investigation.

Is her knee swelling or is there any kind of inflammation?

Hello,

I hope your daughter is doing fine. Physiotherapy is a good initial treatment but if the condition persists in the future you may want to look at other options.

Of course surgery remain the last resort especially that your daughter is still young. Many patients of mine found that Stem cell therapy very effective in treating Patellofemoral pain syndrome.

It is considered one of the newest ways to treat Patellofemoral pain syndrome. The mesenchymal stems cells are used to make cartilage cells under the patella which grows and multiplies into cartilage tissue. The newly formed cartilage tissue under the patella prevents the friction between the patella and femur (thigh bone). Another form of regenerative therapy can be used it is called Platelet Rich Plasma. Platelet Rich Plasma help to reduce the inflammation and reduce the symptoms. These forms of treatment were used in treating numerous professional athletes for sports-related injuries.

With traditional treatment methods, pain almost always comes back, so you may want to look into this form of regenerative treatment especially that your daughter is athletic and you don't want this new condition to affect her life style now or in the future. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me.

All the best