The structure of the hip is not different in adults than in children; the only difference is that in smaller children the hip is not yet completely grown together. The acetabulum generally consists of 3 different bone parts (os ischium, os ilium and os pubis). Small children have open growth joints, namely exactly where these bone parts have not yet grown together. If hip pain occurs, one of the many causes can be a harmless growth pain. Other causes can be the childhood disease Perthes disease or a so-called hip cold (Coxitis fugax).
Causes
Since the hip is necessary for standing upright and walking, hip pain should be taken very seriously by the child. A physician (pediatrician or better pediatric orthopedist) should always be consulted in case of doubt. If the pain occurs mainly at night and disappears again after a few days, the cause may be so-called growth pain.
However, there are also more serious causes. In principle, a child as well as an adult can suffer from a hip fracture or muscle tension in the hip area. Overstretching or even tearing of the ligaments of the hip joint is also possible.
These possible causes of hip pain can occur while playing, for example, a fall on the hip from a climbing frame or twisting the leg while playing soccer. However, it is important to note that children’s bones are much softer than adults’ bones and therefore break much less frequently. Torn ligaments or tendons are also more likely to occur in adults than in children.
In addition to these causes, there are also typical hip rhinitis (Coxitis fugax) in children. This is a non-infectious inflammation of the hip joint. It usually occurs between the age of 3-10 years.
Usually the children had a viral inflammation of the respiratory tract or gastrointestinal tract a few weeks before. The children sometimes project the hip pain up to the knee and have particularly strong pain when they are asked to turn the leg inwards. The inflammation, and thus the hip pain, disappears spontaneously after a few weeks.
Since an infection precedes the disease, hip rhinitis usually occurs in spring, when the cold rate is highest. andAnother cause of hip pain in children can be Perthes disease. This is an orthopedic children’s disease in which bone tissue in the hip button (Os femoris) dies due to circulatory disorders.
This leads to severe hip pain and the children try to avoid the pain by adopting an appropriate relieving posture and reduced movement. How exactly Perthes disease develops is not certain and can vary from child to child. One cause can be a hormonal imbalance, another cause is a circulatory disorder due to malformation of the feeding vessels.
But genetic factors also seem to play a role, as a sibling of an affected child is much more likely to develop the disease than a child without genetic predisposition. In the initial stage, an inflammation in the area of the femoral head as well as the acetabulum occurs, later on, a malposition of the femoral head and acetabulum occurs, resulting in hip pain and difficult walking. A final cause leading to hip pain in children is epiphyseolysis capitis femoris.
This is a so-called epiphysis solution. It is important to know that the femur, which forms the hip joint with the pelvic bone, consists of a head and a long shaft. In small children, there is a small gap between the long shaft bone and the head, the growth gap, which only grows as the child grows. If the head becomes detached from the legal shaft of the thigh bone, this sometimes leads to hip pain in the affected children, but knee pain or pain in the thigh is even more common.
All articles in this series:
