Symptoms and typical age of the disease

Depending on the clinical picture, a distinction is made between typical pain in children. The age at which the children fall ill also plays an important role. With growth pains, the pain typically occurs at night.

The children then have slight pain for several days, but this then disappears. Such growth pain can theoretically occur during the entire growth phase. However, the most decisive “age of onset” is around 3-13 years.Of course, a fracture does not have a classic age of onset.

However, up to about 10 years of age, it is quite unlikely that a child will break a bone quickly because the bones are still very soft and flexible. Here the pain occurs suddenly and usually does not disappear. With coxitis fugax, i.e. hip rhinitis, the pain is rather continuous.

Especially the inner rotation of the leg is painful. After a few weeks the pain simply disappears again. The age of the disease is 3-10 years.

With Perthes disease, pain does not necessarily have to occur. Mostly, however, there is pain at rest, under stress or in the knee and/or hip area. The first symptom is usually the child’s limp.

The age of onset is 3-12 years, with 5-7 year-old boys with white skin color being particularly frequently affected. Epiphyseolysis capitis femoris is mainly manifested by pain in the knee or thigh area, rarely also in the groin. Hip pain may not always be present.

To reduce the pain, children usually keep the leg in external rotation. Here too, gentle limping can occur. From about the age of 9, especially overweight boys can fall ill with this disease.

Diagnosis

If a child complains of hip pain and has also previously had an infection, a blood test is usually ordered. It must be excluded that the child is suffering from a bacterial infection. If there is no indication of an infection in the blood count, it can be assumed that the child is suffering from non-infectious hip rhinitis. In order to rule out Perthes disease, an x-ray should also be taken. This x-ray also shows whether the child may suffer from epiphyseolysis capitis femoris.