Paediatric orthopaedics
161 days
Knee pain? Check the hip.
- That's the median wait for a diagnosis in UK children with a slipped hip whose first symptom was knee pain. With hip pain, it was 20 days.
- SUFE (slipped upper femoral epiphysis) peaks around puberty and is strongly linked to obesity. In one Scottish study, severely obese 11 to 12 year olds had 17 times the risk.
- The hip and knee share a nerve supply (the obturator nerve), so hip problems can be felt in the knee. Always examine the hip in a child with knee pain.
- Limping child with a fever? Kocher's criteria: fever, not weight-bearing, ESR of 40 mm/h or more, and WCC over 12. In the original study, three of the four meant a 93% chance of septic arthritis.
Source: Perry et al, Arch Dis Child 2017 · Perry et al, Pediatrics 2018 · Kocher et al, JBJS Am 1999 · NHS Tayside
Everything on this page is for learning, not medical advice. Each fact links to where it came from, so you can read further.
