“TOO REJUVENATED: OSTEOCHONDROSIS IN ADOLESCENTS – CAUSES, SIGNS AND METHODS OF TREATMENT”, 22.10.2020
More and more children and adolescents at the doctor’s office complain of back pain, and later it turns out that osteochondrosis is to blame.
Chief physician of the children’s department of the Bersenev Medical Center, candidate of medical sciences, pediatric neurologist Kulik Vladislava Olegovna
Causes of adolescent osteochondrosis
Juvenile (adolescent, youth) osteochondrosis is a disease based on degenerative-dystrophic changes in the intervertebral discs in adolescence.
The reasons for these changes are the rapid growth of adolescents, possible disturbances in the process of skeletal formation, as well as inadequate physical exertion on the growing spine (since the muscle corset and cartilage tissue in children and adolescents has not yet completed its formation is not strong enough). The situation is aggravated by heredity, malnutrition, overweight, passive lifestyle, injuries (sometimes obtained during childbirth, at school in physical education), pathology of the development of bone structures).
How does osteochondrosis develop in adolescents?
This disease in adolescents proceeds somewhat differently than osteochondrosis in adults.
So, with cervical osteochondrosis in children, the clinical picture is dominated by vascular disorders associated with impaired blood circulation in the vertebral artery system.
It’s:
- – frequent dizziness, headache, accompanied by nausea and vomiting,
- – fast fatigue from mental and physical exertion,
- – spontaneous fainting, dizziness, weakness, darkening in the eyes
Therefore, before the correct diagnosis is made, the child already has time to visit many specialists and unsuccessfully “undergo treatment”.
In addition, osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine is characterized by periodic pain in the chest, in the left side, in the upper abdomen, which can simulate diseases of the internal organs. In such children, gastroenterologists and pediatricians mistakenly diagnose gastritis, pancreatitis, dyskinesia of the biliary tract. And such a complaint as difficulty breathing leads such children to a cardiologist, pulmonologist.
But lumbar juvenile osteochondrosis has a similar clinical picture with the disease of adults. But still, there are some features of the course that complicate the diagnosis. Pain syndromes arising against the background of osteochondrosis are characterized by a blurred clinical picture and unclear symptoms, which leads to difficulties in differential diagnosis and to the formulation of an incorrect diagnosis.
An important distinguishing feature is the fact that children, due to osteochondrosis, practically do not have sensory movement disorders, as well as dysfunctions of the pelvic organs.
Method for diagnosing osteochondrosis in adolescents
The most important diagnostic method is always a thorough examination of the patient. Inspection should be carried out in all positions: standing, lying, sitting, during movements and bends. The neurologist pays attention to the child’s posture, the position of the shoulder blades, shoulders, the location of the median sulcus of the back. During the examination, it is also possible to determine muscle tension in certain areas and areas of local pain.
This is especially true of changes in the cervical spine, when the tension of the muscles of the neck and shoulder girdle is clearly determined with the formation of trigger points (points of highest tension and sharp pain).
In addition, an X-ray examination of the spine comes to the aid of a neurologist. X-ray signs typical of osteochondrosis (narrowing of the intervertebral spaces, the presence of osteophytes) in children are detected much less often. Very often, Schmorl’s hernias (cartilaginous nodes in the vertebral bodies), located singly or in groups, can be found in the picture.
You can learn more about the disease and treatment at the consultation at the medical center doctorbersenev.ua
Address: Kiev, 04053, Ukraine
st. Bulvarno-Kudryavskaya, 10-B
contact center: (044) 238-22-31
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