Bone pain in children

Bone pain can be caused by various pathologies of bones, blood vessels, joints, muscles, nerves, sensorimotor disorders, radiating pain in diseases of the heart, lungs, pleura, liver and spleen, digestive and genitourinary tracts.

Only a small part of pains, perceived by patients as pains in bones, is actually connected with damage to the supporting apparatus. More often these are diseases of muscles, vessels, nerves, connective tissue. At the same time, many pathological processes in bones proceed painlessly for a long time. Thus, the diagnosis of bone disease often has to be made on the principle of exclusion and necessarily with the use of X-ray and isotope methods of research.

Generalized metabolic disorders of bones usually manifest themselves primarily in the vertebrae, i.e. in bones that experience constant load. The pain is dull, often without precise localization. Osteoporosis is not clinically detected for a long time. It is detected almost exclusively at the stage of compression fractures of the vertebrae or femoral neck with minimal, and often non-fixable injuries. Bone pain that occurs with static load (lumbar vertebrae, pelvic bones, legs) tends to increase and decrease or may completely disappear in a horizontal position.

Bone tumors have a fairly characteristic localization. Benign tumors are localized mainly in the knee area (35%). Most benign tumors occur in childhood, but they are detected in adults. Chondrosarcoma is equally common at any age, and osteosarcoma is usually found in children and adolescents. X-ray examination methods are of decisive importance in the diagnosis of bone tumors.

Aseptic osteonecrosis (osteochondrosis, localized osteochondritis). Aseptic bone necrosis, the diagnostic criteria of which are local pain, especially under load, lasting for weeks. Radiologically, enlightenment is revealed, then compaction and recovery with preservation of the defect in a specific area of the bone.

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