Tibial tuberosity maturation assessment by ultrasonography and screening for Osgood–Schlatter disease in male and female children and adolescent athletes: a cross-sectional study

Our study was aimed to describe the maturation pattern of the tibial tuberosity in association with chronological age in children and adolescent athletes. This was a single centre cross-sectional study on 116 subjects, 63 males and 53 females, with ages between 7 and 18 years. All participants were performance athletes, members of sports clubs, participating in daily training. All subjects were examined for symptoms related to Osgood-Schlatter disease (OSD) and evaluated by ultrasound of the knee in order to establish the maturation stage of the tibial tuberosity based on a 4-point scale. Tibial tuberosity maturation stage was distributed as follows: stage 1 (<i>n</i> = 31, 26.7%), stage 2 (<i>n</i> = 9, 7.8%), stage 3 (<i>n</i> = 27, 23.3%) and stage 4 (<i>n</i> = 49, 42.2%). Only three cases presented symptoms associated with OSD, which results in a very low prevalence of only 2.6%. Between the ages of 13 and 15 years, female subjects showed higher proportions of complete bone maturation compared to males. Our study provides information about the gender offset of tibial tuberosity bone maturation.