Abstract
Unexplained, or functional, chronic musculoskeletal pain or Non-Specific Lower Limb Pain (NSLLP) is a common condition seen in family practice and affects children of all ages. It is imperative to exclude pathological causes of chronic pain, especially infection, neoplasia and injury. The clinician must also be aware of age-related orthopaedic conditions, that may explain the presenting symptoms.
Chronic pain is defined as lasting for more than 12 weeks without the presence of neural, neoplastic or inflammatory abnormalities, whereas acute pain is characterised by these features. The neural pathways for chronic pain are complex and are influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. It is most appropriately assessed using a Biopsychosocial model of pain such as the Yellow Flags assessment of adult back pain (Shaw et al., J Occup Environ Med. 51:1032–1040, 2009).
This chapter addresses chronic pain, including growing pains in preschool and junior school children, benign joint hypermobility, central sensitisation disorder and growth-related adolescent pain.
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Vasu, T., Abraham, A. (2021). Chronic Pain in Children. In: Alshryda, S., Jackson, L., Thalange, N., AlHammadi, A. (eds) Pediatric Orthopedics for Primary Healthcare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65214-2_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65214-2_13
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