Gastrocnemius Tightness and Foot Pain in Children

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Foot and leg pain among otherwise healthy children is a common reason for referral to our pediatric orthopaedics outpatient clinic. The pain is often intermittent and transient, but for some the pain is more dominating and has an impact on the child and families. Children grown and have normal anatomical variations such as in-toeing, out-toeing, hypermobility, flatfeet, knock knees etc. Assessing such normal variants is a major part of pediatric orthopaedic practice, and a common finding is a positive Silvferskiöld test, indicating gastrocnemius tightness. This is when dorsiflexion of the ankle is limited with extended knee, compared to flexed knee. We do not know if this is a more frequent finding among children with foot and leg pain. There is however evidence that adults with painful foot conditions often have gastrocnemius tightness. This project will investigate for gastrocnemius tightness in otherwise healthy children referred to our pediatric orthopaedic outpatient clinic with foot and leg pain, and compare results with a similar control group of children without pain. The aim is to investigate if there is an association, and how pain and tightness develops over time. The knowledge from this project will enable us to develop new treatment strategies to this patient group, where current evidence based recommendations are few.

Official Title
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Is There an Association Between Gastrocnemius Tightness and Foot- and Legpain in Children?

Conditions
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Child Development, Gastrocnemius Equinus

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Clinical examination


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Otherwise healthy children referred to pediatric orthopaedic outpatient clinic with foot and/or leg pain with a normal leg function Exclusion Criteria: Patients with foot conditions, general medical conditions affecting the foot or clinical findings indicating a need for further investigation for a diagnosis. Such as: Foot deformities (cavo-varus foot, clubfoot) Tarsal coalitions Neuro-orthopedic conditions (CP, MMC) Fracture sequelae Infections and tumour

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 4 Years
Maximum Age: 16 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Children with pain<br>These are children referred with fot and leg pain. Following outcomes will be measured on all included children: Silvferskiölds test Height Weight Gender Age PROM child: Oxford Ankle and Foot Questionnaire for children PROM parent: Oxford Ankle and Foot Questionnaire for parents FPS pain scoring over 1 week | Other: Clinical examination<br>* No intervention, only clinical examination<br>|
| Control group children without pain<br>Following outcomes will be measured on all included children in control group: Silvferskiölds test Height Weight Gender Age | Other: Clinical examination<br>* No intervention, only clinical examination<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Silvferskiölds test | Clinical measurement of gastrocnemius tightness | 2 years |