Best Practice Case Studies-Elbow Ossification Centers

Video Transcription

knowing where to look. Here's the mnemonic for these growth plates and what I tell people about  this is just remembering that they appear in an order and they disappear in a different order  and if you're ever unsure there's nothing wrong with x-raying the other elbow just for a comparison  view. But this is the order with which they appear and you can see every two years you get a new  growth plate and then once they all appear they start to fuse. The medial one is the last one  to close usually around 15 to 16 in boys so you can see this can go well into high school.  Here they are pictorially so capitellum, radial head, internal, trochlear, olecranon and then external. These three fuse followed by the radial head and the olecranon and then again  the medial epicondyle is the last to close.

Video Summary

The video discusses the order of appearance and fusion of elbow growth plates in children. A mnemonic helps remember this sequence: growth plates appear every two years, starting with the capitellum and ending with the medial epicondyle. It's important to note they fuse in a different order. In boys, the medial epicondyle typically closes around ages 15 to 16, highlighting that growth continues into high school. When uncertain, comparing both elbows via X-ray is recommended for clarity.

Meta Tag

Edition 2nd Edition

Related Case 2nd Edition, CASE 08

Topic Elbow and Forearm

Keywords

2nd Edition, CASE 08

2nd Edition

Elbow and Forearm

elbow growth plates

mnemonic

children

X-ray comparison

medial epicondyle