| Abstract: | The Sinding-Larsen and Johansson disease is a non-negligible cause of gonalgia among children of 10 to 14, often misinterpreted as « growing pain . The disease is a benign pathology of the lower pole of the patella which occurs preferentially in physically active children. Our study, carried out in conjunction with the medical department INSEP, is based on a literature review as well as an analysis of 14 cases over two years. The present work eventually led to the differentiation of four etiopathological categories accounting for all the radiochemical evolutions observed. At the origin of these four categories, two factors coexist: the local fragility (the presence of cartilage at the lower pole of the patella) and the trigerring factor, which is most often sports practice. This explains why among children practicing sports, even intensively, only few suffer from this disease.It is essential to know the different radiological aspects of the normal patella in children, in order not to misinterpret one of these aspects with the Sinding-Larsen and Johansson disease.Always benign, the Sinding-Larsen and Johansson disease can very seriously disturb the « careerof children, engaged in high-level sports activity, the average time of evolution being seven months. |
