How Many Children Do We Help?
There are more children with crippling growth problems than you’d think. Apart from birth abnormalities and diseases affecting the bones, growth problems can begin with a simple playground accident.
When a child breaks a bone, there is a one-in-six chance that the bone’s ‘growth plate’ (which is responsible for the longitudinal growth of that bone in children) may be damaged. Damage to the growth plate can cause a bone to stop or slow down its growth, or to grow at irregular angles.
As our research continues and our knowledge increases, the application of that knowledge will help children with crippling growth problems such as:
• bone growth arrest or angulations
• children with one limb longer than the other
• children suffering from scoliosis (10 percent of all girls are affected)
• dwarfism or bone dysplasias
• bone tumours and bone diseases
• children whose growth has been hindered as a result of chemotherapy treatment
• hip dislocation
• hand and foot problems such as club foot
• neuromuscular disorders, such as spina bifida
• birth injuries
Through our research, we estimate that we can help up to 15 percent of Australia’s children to grow up straight and strong.
In publishing and sharing our research with the international scientific and medical communities, we aim not only to bring the best possible treatments to Australian children but, ultimately, to help children with crippling growth problems all over the world.
