Rickets. A study with case report

Rickets is a pediatric disorder not commonly encountered by physicians in the US. Nevertheless, the podiatric physician should be aware that it persists and may exist in children who initially present with gait disturbances or failure to thrive. By using routine plain film radiography of the child's foot, the podiatric physician can screen one of the child's most rapid sites of secondary osseous growth, ie, the distal tibia. A brief overview of the rachitic and osteomalacic disorders is presented, followed by a discussion centered primarily on the plain film radiologic diagnosis of rickets.