In sporty children and adolescents between 8 and 15 years old, these complaints may indicate Osgood Schlatter's condition.
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Complaints that may point to Osgood Schlatter
- a painful bump at the front below the knee, where the patellar tendon attaches to the lower leg
- knee pain during or after exercise
- pain when climbing stairs
- pain when extending the knee
- knee pain when squatting or sitting on the knees
How the complaint arises
During the growth of the skeleton, all muscles and tendons must grow along with it. If the patellar tendon pulls hard on the growing shin bone, the attachment can become overloaded. This causes pain and swelling in the area.
The swelling that patients often have is bone that has started to grow in response to the tendon problem. This swelling can be very painful, especially if something bumps into it or if the patient kneels.
How We Treat Knee Pain by Osgood Schlatter
The pain in Osgood-Schlatter is often triggered by sport, especially running and jumping. Osgood-Schlatter goes away on its own when growth stops, but that can take a long time. Stopping sport is usually not necessary: the advice is to adjust the load so that the pain stays manageable.
Other treatments include taking painkillers or anti-inflammatories, doing stretches to stretch the thigh muscle and wearing a knee brace.
Prolotherapy for the painful tendon
If the above treatments do not provide enough relief, we recommend treating the painful tendon with prolotherapy.
Prolotherapy strengthens the attachment of the patellar tendon below the knee to the shin bone. That's where the pain comes from. The treatment also stimulates other ligaments of the knee to recover, if we find instability there.
With glucose injections we trigger the body’s own healing response. This improves blood flow and attracts repair cells to restore the painful tendon. As soon as the symptoms decrease, sport can gradually be built up again.
Research in young athletes suggests this treatment may speed up recovery compared with rest, physiotherapy or a wait-and-see approach; the number of studies is still small.
The treatment is safe and well tolerated by most patients. Every patient is different: recovery can vary from a few weeks to a few months.
Recognizable symptoms
- A painful bump in the front below the knee
- Knee pain during or after exercise
- Pain when climbing stairs
- Pain when extending the knee
- Knee pain when squatting or sitting on your knees
Scientific references (2)
- Sanderson LM, Bryant A. Effectiveness and safety of prolotherapy injections for management of lower limb tendinopathy and fasciopathy: a systematic review. J Foot Ankle Res. 2015 Oct 20;8:57. doi: 10.1186/s13047-015-0114-5. eCollection 2015. Erratum in: J Foot Ankle Res. 2015;8:60. PubMed PMID: 26500703; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4617485.
- Topol GA, Podesta LA, Reeves KD, Raya MF, Fullerton BD, Yeh HW. Hyperosmolar dextrose injection for recalcitrant Osgood-Schlatter disease. Pediatrics. 2011 Nov;128(5):e1121-8. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-1931. Epub 2011 Oct 3. PubMed PMID: 21969284.
