A contemporary view of Blount's disease (literature review)

Abstract

Introduction Blount's disease is a severe pediatric pathology of the musculoskeletal system. The condition is characterized by impaired growth and development of the proximal medial tibia and epiphysis, leading to varus deformity of the knee joint. Blount's disease is not just a cosmetic defect, but a serious orthopaedic condition accompanied by a gait disorder in a child. Patients with Blount's disease need surgical correction followed by longterm rehabilitation and can develop recurrence. The etiology of Blount's disease is unknown. Varus deformity of the knee joint is diagnosed in children all over the world, but studies on this pathology are few. There is a paucity of publications in the modern Russian literature reporting the pathology.

The objective was review the literature on the classification, diagnosis, etiology and treatment of Blount's disease.

Material and methods Electronic databases of PubMed, Scopus, eLibrary were used to source literature on the topic.

Results Blount's disease has been shown to be characterized by disordered growth of the medial aspect of the proximal tibial physis and epiphysis that results in a three-dimensional deformity of the lower limb. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of the cohort of patients. The etiology of Blount disease is unknown, and it is currently thought to result from a multifactorial combination of hereditary, humoral, biomechanical, and developmental factors.

Conclusion Genetic predisposition has been postulated in the development of Blount's disease in many studies. Multiple factors such as ethnicity, obesity and early walking age are thought to be the contributing elements to this disease. To understand the key factor of the disease, further study of the hereditary nature of this pathology is necessary.