Surgical treatment of unresolved Osgood-Schlatter lesion.

The Osgood-Schlatter lesion is considered a traction apophysitis. Treatment is generally conservative, and only rarely does a surgical treatment become necessary for the persistence of pain and swelling over the tibial tubercle. The most widely used procedure consists of the excision of all intratendinous ossicles with or without removal of the prominent tibial tubercle. In 15 cases treated in this manner compared with 11 cases treated with various procedures before 1975, the results were clearly better with the former. There was only one fair and no poor results. Removal of all loose intratendinous ossicles associated with prominent tibial tubercles is the procedure of choice, both from the functional and the cosmetic point of view.