This book brings together the congenital, acquired and traumatic conditions which may affect the child's cervical and thoraco-lumbar spine. The immature spine poses considerable diagnostic dilemmas and radiographs are often difficult to interpret. The aetiology of deformity, its assessment, monitoring and treatment are comprehensively described. Back pain in children receives special attention. Care has been taken to identify symptoms and signs which should raise our level of anxiety and those which are likely to resolve. Where surgery is necessary the principles and risks are defined.

Children's upper and lower limb orthopaedic disorders has been written to give orthopaedic practitioners an easily accessible and concise description of regional disease and conditions encountered in the practice of pediatric orthopaedic surgery. The upper limb chapters describe fetal development and how this may go wrong. As always, function dominates our management plans although cosmetic considerations must be borne in mind. Perinatal brachial plexus injury is analyzed and a plea made for early recognition and reconstruction of both plexus lesions and peripheral nerve injuries. The lower limb chapters consider limb deficiency and deformity and how best we should manage them. Those prominent afflictions of the child's hip - dysplasia, Perthes' disease and epiphyseal slipping - are fully discussed. Chapters on the common conditions affecting the knee, foot and ankle complete the book.

This book starts appropriately in considering the principles which should govern our care of the injured child and the background factors which influence fracture epidemiology. Knowing how to manage the multiply injured child and recognizing the one who has been non-accidentally injured are essential skills in our specialty. Injuries to the growth plate are not always easy to recognize and manage but, if we fail to do so, the long-term consequences may be serious. Succeeding chapters describe childhood injuries and fractures regionally. Conservative fracture management has not been forgotten amidst the plethora of newer methods of surgical fixation.

In this book we discuss how children grow, how to measure this and how to decide whether development falls within normal parameters. It is important not to over-investigate, but, if necessary, which tests and imaging should we choose? We consider how best to look after our patients in hospital, out-patients departments and at home. This leads us to consider problems with the norm, including the more generalised bone and cartilage disorders, most now genetically determined. The section concludes with chapters on infection, arthritis and that most emotive of topics, the tumours of childhood.

The newborn child's immature nervous system makes early diagnosis of some neurological disorders difficult: it is often only the passage of time which clarifies the severity and pattern. Careful analysis of motor skills, vision, hearing and speech allows us to assess milestones. Progress from head control to sitting, standing and the maturation of gait should be orderly. Informed examination and the chapter on gait analysis highlight this development. Chapters in this book describe neural tube defects, the recognition and management of cerebral palsy and, lest we forget, poliomyelitis. The book is completed by considering the muscular dystrophies and arthrogryposis.