Knee Injuries - Why They Are So Common in Children

Knee injuries are a familiar reason why professional football stars are often out of action. They are also the reason many children and young people have to sit on the sidelines, missing out on the sports they enjoy. Knee injuries are extremely common in children and young people, especially as they undergo growth spurts, putting their joints under additional strain.

So it is well worth parents having a working knowledge of the knee joint so that you can help prevent sports injury in your child.

Knee injuries are, in fact, the most common sports injuries experienced by school children, as they often occur during the kinds of sports activities that take place at school - especially rugby, football and hockey. All of these put pressure on the knee joint through running, jumping and, twisting and landing - as well as the inevitable occasional collision!

As the largest joint in the body, the knee sits in the middle of three bones - the shin bone (the tibia), the thigh bone (the femur) and the knee cap (the patella). The ends of the patella and the femur are cushioned by cartilage, so that they do not rub against each other.

There are extra pads of cartilage called menisci above the tibia, to help absorb the weight of the body. Each knee has two of these - an inside meniscus (medial) and an outside meniscus (lateral).

So, in other words, there are quite a few parts that can go wrong!

And this is quite apart from the muscles, tendons and ligaments that all work together to help the knee move.

The muscles involved in moving the knee are the quadriceps at the front of the thigh and the hamstring behind the thigh. Tendons connect the muscles to the bones, whilst ligaments connect bones to other bones or to cartilage. There are no less than four ligaments in the knee, connecting the tibia to the femur.

These are the medial collateral ligament, on the inside; the lateral collateral ligament, on the outside; the anterior cruciate ligament, at the centre and the posterior cruciate ligament, at the back.
Most lay people have no idea that such a simple thing as a knee joint is actually so complex and has so many different parts!

The most common injury in a child is a knee sprain. This is the term used to describe a stretch or tearing of a ligament.

The arterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most common knee ligament to be damaged in a sports injury, usually by a sudden twist or landing badly after a jump.

It can be very painful and is often accompanied by a snapping sound in the poor child's knee when the injury happens

Another common injury is a strain. This is when the child has torn a muscle or tendon. Again, it will be very painful and in this case you may see bruises around the knee.

Then, there is also the risk of tendinitis. This can happen when a tendon gets inflamed or irritated. This very common sports injury most often leads to pain on walking or trying to extend a leg.

If you have a young boy, aged around 10-15, you may be unlucky enough to encounter Osgood Schlatter Disease, as it is very common in growing lads in this age group. Typically, the youngster will feel pain just below the front of the kneecap on the tibia, and this gets worse with activity.

For most knee injuries, the best advice is to rest the knee and apply compression. In many cases, a knee brace can help.

If you are very unlucky, surgery may be necessary. However, that is made easier as these days as an orthopaedist can perform arthroscopy. This is a form of surgery that means the orthopaedist can make a very small opening and look straight into your child's knee joint, using a tube with a tiny video camera on the end. That way, he can exactly identify the precise nature of the problem and the whole process can be made more straightforward.

As ever, however, prevention is always better than cure! So always encourage your child to wear protective equipment for sport, such as kneepads and shin guards. Knee support including knee straps and knee braces can also help prevent further injury if your child's knee has been injured previously, making it more vulnerable.

In addition, stress to your child that it is really important he or she always warm up and cools down before and after sport or other vigorous activity. Many children do not understand why this matters, so they are less inclined to make it is a vital part of their routine.

Increasing awareness about knee injuries, knee support and sports first aid can help your child stay fit, avoiding unnecessary pain and the misery of having to stay on the sidelines.