Blount's disease after skeletal maturity.

Twelve patients, seventeen to twenty-five years old, who had had infantile Blount's disease involving nineteen limbs, were evaluated at a mean of twelve years after an initial osteotomy. Twelve of the nineteen knees were symptomatic, and eight of the symptomatic knees showed early degenerative changes by arthroscopy or arthrotomy. There was a direct correlation between the symptoms and the severity of the involvement of the proximal end of the tibia. A poor final outcome appears to be related to physeal damage. Early osteotomy must be performed before permanent physeal damage and subsequent incongruity of the joint occur.