Identifying Sever's Disease in Children & The Causes

05/17/21 • 3 min

In this episode, Dr. Mikkel Jarman discusses how to determine whether a child's heel pain is the result of Sever's disease. Sever's is a condition caused by a growth spurt in which the heel bone grows at a faster rate than the muscles and tendons surrounding it. While it is painful, it is usually temporary and mainly affects children ages seven to fourteen years old. Heel pain will worsen with physical ground and pound activities such as dance and gymnastics, soccer, football, baseball. Sever's disease treatments can include: elevating the leg and applying ice, specific leg and foot stretches, and sometimes custom orthotic shoe inserts.

Previous Episode

Children's Heel Pain

Many times children's heel pain is dismissed and assumed it is part of growing pains. This is often not the case, and it should always be evaluated by a pediatric podiatrist in order to make sure that there are no red flags for something more serious going on.
Children's heel pain can be the result of Achilles Tendinitis, a heel fracture, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, or in most cases, a condition called Sever's disease.
Sever’s disease accounts for over 90% of the children’s heel pain cases we see and is the #1 cause of heel pain in kids.
In this episode Dr. Mikkel Jarman discusses children's heel pain and possible causes and treatments.

Next Episode

Pediatric Flat Feet Treatment

Pediatric flat feet is a condition in which the entire bottom of the child's foot touches the ground. It occurs when the arch either fails to develop or collapses. This condition is fairly common since children's feet bones and joints are still extremely flexible. In most cases, the condition doesn't require treatment. However, in some cases, treatment is required and there are both conservative and surgical options depending on the child's specific condition and severity.
Hyprocure is minimally invasive procedure that treats flat feet in children by inserting a small titanium stint between the heel and ankle.
Custom orthotics may be used to treat pediatric flat feet as well.

Pediatric Foot & Ankle - Identifying Sever's Disease in Children & The Causes

Transcript

[00:00] - Dr. Mikkel Jarman
Hello, I'm Dr. Mikkel Jarman here with Pediatric Foot & Ankle, and today I want to discuss the condition of Sever's, otherwise known as calcaneal apophysitis