Age and Sex Differences in Overuse Injuries Presenting to Pediatric Sports Medicine Clinics

Pediatric overuse injuries present with a gradual mechanism of onset and an underlying pathogenesis of microtrauma. We evaluated the clinical presentation of pediatric sports injuries to determine if differences exist between age and sex. A retrospective chart review was performed over a 6-year period; 6593 overuse injuries were included with the mean age of 13.4 years. Males presented with a greater proportion of apophysis, physis, and articular cartilage injuries ( P < .01). Females presented with greater bone, tendon, and "other" injuries ( P < .01). Children <9 years of age demonstrated apophysis and physis injuries. Conversely, children older than 15 years of age presented with tendon, bone, bursa, and other ( P < .01) overuse injuries. A significant number of pediatric athletes in this cohort reported playing through pain prior to clinical evaluation. Injury prevention programs need to educate children, and a red flag should be raised when pediatric athletes are participating with pain.