Joint pain in children. When is it serious?

Abstract

Diagnosis of the cause of joint pain in children depends on the physician's ability to distinguish benign from more serious joint conditions. Benign conditions include trauma, overuse syndromes, hypermobility syndrome, chondromalacia patellae, benign recurrent limb pains, and psychogenic rheumatism. Conditions that require further evaluation and ongoing therapy include Lyme disease, rheumatic fever, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, neoplastic disease, various orthopedic conditions, infection, seronegative spondyloarthropathies, and the rarer connective tissue diseases. If diagnosed early and treated appropriately, most joint problems of childhood have a very good prognosis.