Using Skeletal Maturity in Pediatric Orthopaedics: A Primer.

Abstract

This article provides researchers with the background and guidance necessary to practically incorporate skeletal maturity estimation into any study of adolescents with imaging of the shoulder, elbow, hand, hip, knee, or foot. It also provides clinicians with a comprehensive, concise synopsis of systems that can be used to estimate skeletal maturity in clinical practice. In the article, we provide a relatively brief overview of each currently available skeletal maturity system that has been validated on a longitudinal dataset. The supplementary files include 2 PowerPoint files for each skeletal maturity system. The first PowerPoint file offers examples and instructions for using each radiographic system. The second PowerPoint file includes 20 graded radiographs that can be used for reliability analyses in the research setting. We have also developed a free mobile application available on the iOS and Android platforms named "What's the Skeletal Maturity?" that allows clinicians to rapidly estimate skeletal maturity on any patient using any commonly obtained orthopaedic radiograph.