H UMERUS 1 A NATOMICAL N ECK 2 C APITULUM 3 C ORONOID F OSSA 4 D ELTOID T UBEROSITY 5 G REATER T UBERCLE 6 H EAD OF H UMERUS 7 I NTERTUBERCULAR G ROOVE / S ULCUS (B ICIPITAL G ROOVE ) 8 L ATERAL E PICONDYLE 9 L ATERAL S UPRACONDYLAR R IDGE OF THE H UMERUS - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The epiphyseal plate (or growth plate) is a hyaline cartilage plate in the metaphysis at each end of a long bone. The plate is found in children and adolescents; in adults, who have stopped growing, the plate is replaced by an epiphyseal line.
Whereas endochondral ossification is responsible for the initial bone development from cartilage in utero and infants, the epiphyseal plate is responsible for longitudinal growth of bones. The plate's chondrocytes are under constant division by mitosis. These daughter cells stack facing the epiphysis while the older cells are pushed towards the diaphysis. As the older chondrocytes degenerate, osteoblasts ossify the remains to form new bone. Around the end of puberty, the epiphyseal cartilage cells stop duplicating and the entire cartilage is slowly replaced by bone, leaving only a thin epiphyseal line.[1] Once the adult stage is reached, the only way to manipulate height is modifying bone length via distraction osteogenesis.The growth plate has a very specific morphology in having a zonal arrangement. The growth plate includes a relatively inactive reserve zone at the epiphyseal end, moving distally into a proliferative and then hyper trophic zone and ending with a band of ossifying cartilage (the metaphysis). The growth plate is clinically relevant in that it is often the primary site for infection, metastasis, fractures and the effects of endocrine bone disorders