Focal periphyseal edema of the knee in a junior youth tennis player: A case report

Herein, we report a case of focal periphyseal edema in a 12-year-old female tennis player. The onset of chronic knee pain in adolescents has differential diagnoses, including fatigue fracture, epiphysis (Osgood-Schlatter disease), growth plate injury, Brodie abscess, patella-femoral malalignment, neoplasia, and meniscus tears. In this case, magnetic resonance imaging revealed focal bone marrow edema around the center of the epiphyseal plate of the distal femur. Three months later, the patient experienced residual knee pain, with no improvement visible on re-imaging. However, symptoms of the patient resolved, and the bone marrow edema disappeared 10 months after the initial visit. This is the first report to follow both clinical symptoms and the concurrent magnetic resonance imaging findings during the period from onset to cure in a patient with focal periphyseal edema of the knee.