Sever’s Disease, A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Sever’s Disease, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases
Sever's disease (termed calcaneal apophysitis) is a swelling with irritation of the growth plate in the heel.
The growth plate is a stratum of cartilage near the end of a bone where most of the bone's growth happens.
The growth plates are vulnerable to trauma.
It is weaker and more at danger for injury than the rest of the bone.
When a child is fully grown, the growth plates will close and are substituted by solid bone.
Until this happens, the growth plates are weaker than the nearby tendons and ligaments
Sever’s disease is one of the most frequent causes of heel pain in growing children and adolescents.
Sever's disease most often happens during a period of rapid growth in active adolescent patients between 9 and 12 years of age and is the most frequent cause of heel pain in this specific age group.
Symptoms can be one-sided, but up to 60% of cases can manifest with bilateral pain.
Sever's disease happens more often in males, manifesting most often at a median age of 12 years for males and 11 years for females.
The most often sports affected in these cases need repetitive running and jumping such as in basketball, soccer, track, cross-country, and gymnastics.
Risk factors for Sever's disease are:
1. General risk factors for overuse injury such as long or year-round activities,
2. Poorly fitting or worn out footwear, or
3. Poor training mechanics.
Additional biomechanical factors such as poor heel cord flexibility, pes cavus, pes planus, genu varum, or forefoot varus can affect patients to develop the disorder
Cause
Sever's disease happens during the growth spurt of puberty.
During a growth spurt, the bones, muscles, and tendons develop at different rates.
The muscles and tendons can grow to be tight, pulling on the growth plate in the heel.
Activities and sports drag on the tight muscles and tendons, damaging the growth plate.
This damage causes the pain of Sever's disease.
Less often, Sever's disease can happen from standing too long, which places constant pressure on the heel.
Symptoms
Sever's disease normally produces pain or tenderness in one or both heels
It can cause:
1. Swelling and redness in the heel
2. Stiffness in the feet when first waking up
3. Limping, or walking on tiptoes
4. Pain when the heel is squeezed on both sides
Painful symptoms are often induced by running, jumping, and other sports-related activities
Medical examination is necessary for tenderness over calcaneal insertion of Achilles tendon and a positive squeeze test.
Diagnosis is medical and does not need imaging studies except to exclude other diseases.
Treatment
Sever's disease is eventually a self-limiting disorder that recovers with maturation and closure of the apophysis.
The treatment for Sever’s disease directs on decreasing pain and swelling.
This normally needs restricting exercise activity until the child can enjoy activity without discomfort or significant pain afterwards.
In some patients, the rest from activity is needed for several months, accompanied by a strength conditioning program.
A child with Sever's disease could try to cut down or avoid all activities that produce pain.
Walking and non-weight bearing exercises (like swimming) are normally acceptable.
In most cases of Sever’s disease, simple measures will alleviate pain and permit a return to daily activities such as:
1. Rest,
2. Over-the-counter medicines,
3. A change in footwear, and
4. Stretching and strengthening exercises
The doctor may advise extra treatment methods, such as:
1. Heel pads
2. Heel cord stretch
3. Stretching exercises for Achilles tendon
4. Ice before and after sports

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Sever’s Disease
Chapter 2 Causes
Chapter 3 Symptom

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Sep 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463090190

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

Sever’s Disease,

A

Simple

Guide

To

The Condition,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2019 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Sever’s Disease, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Sever’s Disease)

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiography account of my journey as a medical student to family doctor on my other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiography account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

Sever's Disease

What Is Sever's Disease?

Sever's disease (termed calcaneal apophysitis) is a swelling with irritation of the growth plate in the heel.

The growth plate is a stratum of cartilage near the end of a bone where most of the bone's growth happens.

The growth plates are vulnerable to trauma.

It is weaker and more at danger for injury than the rest of the bone.

When a child is fully grown, the growth plates will close and are substituted by solid bone.

Until this happens, the growth