Growth Plate Injuries are hard to identify unless you know what to look for. Dr. Lindsay Crawford specializes in Pediatric Orthopedics and shares some of her wisdom with the Sports Medicine Broadcast.















The location of the pain is an indicator



Is it at the joint itself or on the bone adjacent?



Dr. Crawford likes to have xrays before doing a lot of special tests on athletes with swelling



How can they verbalize?



Take your time



Look all around



Break it down and say words they understand



Use your normal system for evaluating



Give them a distraction - maybe close their eyes



I try to not clue them into what I am looking at.



Little league elbow - what tips do you have?



Year-round baseball is huge in the southern states where you can play all year long.



You need to have a feel for the parents and kid and know if you can say rest or not throw anything at all other than in a life-threatening situation.



Return to throwing instructions are complex and have a lot of steps.



After they begin their program require them to come back into the clinic to re-evaluate



Speak to the Mental Health of the kids that get shut down.



Know what the patient's goal is, and form a plan that works and they can follow.



Do we have an end point or goal



The curveball and growth plate injuries?



If there was no pain, and then they started throwing the curve ball and pain started, we need to cut out the curve.



If you have mysterious knee pain then check the hip.



Growing pains are real



Some kids have growing pains



3-6-year-olds, typically have pain in their calf or knee



They can not relate it to any activity



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