Helping children out of chronic pain
New research hopes to prevent hundreds of children living with perthes disease from suffering chronic pain.
Every year around 50 Kiwi kids are diagnosed with perthes — a condition where insufficient blood supply causes cells in the hip joint to die, damaging movement and causing crippling pain.
University student Caiti Brown was diagnosed with perthes when she was 5 years old and is now facing a hip replacement at the age of 22.
The new research is too late for Brown but she said it would be life-changing for future generations of children living with perthes.
“It would mean that if I have children and they get the disease they wouldn’t have to feel the pain I do every day and they wouldn’t have to rely on high-dose painkillers.”
For the past two and half years University of Otago Christchurch-based orthopaedic surgeon Dr David Kieser has been working on a treatment to prevent the progression of perthes.
Kieser said it would not cure the disease but it could be a preventative measure for children in the initial stages by stopping the collapse of the femoral head — the highest ● Perthes disease is a rare childhood condition where insufficient blood supply causes cells in the hip joint to die, damaging movement and causing crippling pain.
● Around 50 Kiwi kids are diagnosed with the condition each year.
part of the thigh bone.
“You only have to see one young child with great ambition who . . . at the age of 16 has already undergone several operations and now needs their first hip replacement — that’s enough to drive you to help people,” he said.
Kieser’s team hope to launch a clinical trial some time next year and Cure Kids is raising money through Red Nose Day this month to help them continue their research.
The treatment involves an injection in the hip when children are first diagnosed to open up blood supply and stop the disease progressing.
Despite it all, Brown doesn’t let her condition dictate her life. The Victoria University student is studying biomedical science and psychology and hopes to one day get stuck into research like Kieser’s to make a difference in other young people’s lives.
Cure Kids’ Red Nose Day is September 28. Funds raised will be used to support vital child health research such as Dr Kieser’s. For more info go to rednoseday.co.nz