Juvenile osteochondritis dissecans of the knee in the general adolescent population: Prevalence and longitudinal trends

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OBJECTIVES: We established the prevalence of juvenile osteochondritis dissecans (JOCD) of the knee in a general adolescent population undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), irrespective of symptoms. METHODS: This study was part of an open population-based cohort study, the Generation R study. Between 2017 and 2020, adolescents aged 13 years underwent MRI of both knees. These MRIs were assessed for signs of JOCD. The participant characteristics and presence of symptoms of those with and without JOCD were compared. If an MRI at the age of 13 years showed a JOCD lesion, a follow-up MRI at the age of 17 years was assessed as well. RESULTS: Nineteen hundred ten participants (13.5 years, interquartile range: 13.4-13.7, 52% girls) were included in this study. Thirteen JOCD lesions were found in 11 participants. This corresponds to a prevalence of JOCD of 1 in 174 participants. All 11 participants with JOCD were boys as opposed to 48.0% boys in the entire group (p = 0.01). One participant with JOCD experienced pain in the knee (9.1%), compared to 8.0% of the total number of participants (p = 0.89). Out of 7 follow-up MRIs at 17 years old, none of the participants had a JOCD lesion anymore. CONCLUSION: In this general adolescent population, we found a prevalence of 1 in 174 adolescents being affected by JOCD of the knee. This suggests that JOCD is not as rare as commonly perceived. As participants with JOCD did not have more pain than those who did not, this may indicate that JOCD occurs asymptomatically more often than previously perceived. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III.