The effect of trauma to the epiphysis and growth plate

Abstract

Acute injuries to the growth plate and the epiphysis, and their potential to produce deformity have been well classified in the child of an age where there is a bony nucleus within the epiphysis. Chronic trauma, most notably sustained pressure, produces a wide range of disorders of cartilage including necrosis, growth retardation, fragmentation, and degeneration with resultant abnormalities of growth. During infancy, before the bony centrum appears, acute trauma produces primarily a slipped epiphysis, while chronic trauma results in pressure deformity. Vertical incisions across the plate do no generally result in deformity since there is no bone in the epiphysis to form an attenuating bridge across the plate to the metaphysis.