[Skeletal age determination in adolescence and the 3d decade of life].

The determination of bone age of hand and wrist focussing primarily on bone centre development is limited to childhood and during this period has diagnostic significance as well as therapeutic consequences. At puberty the fusion of epiphyseal growth plates is more important: it reflects the termination of growth and the biological stage of development. An extension of knowledge can be obtained by correlating age beyond 18 years into the third decade of life. This allows sex determination and reflects maturation processes through the appearance and fusion of the apophyses of the iliac crest and the ischial bone. The indications are mainly forensic and for an individual's identification.