Thigh splints in a young female soccer player

The term thigh splints has been used to describe an avulsion injury at the adductor insertion sites of the femur. The condition is analogous to the much more common shin splints. The authors describe this condition in a 17-year-old female high school soccer player. Her clinical history and initial radiographic study suggested osteoid osteoma. However, the delayed-phase radionuclide bone scan showed similar increased uptake at symmetric skeletal locations in the proximal femurs at the site of the junction of adductor brevis and adductor longus insertions, confirming a diagnosis of avulsion injury. No hyperemia was evident on blood-flow images.