Usefulness of the Sauvegrain Method of Bone Age Assessment in Indian Children

Bone age estimation is very useful in children undergoing epiphysiodesis or guided growth surgery especially during the years of accelerated growth. It may be noted that no data are available on bone age estimation for Indian children of this age group. Sauvegrain (French) method is a very useful and simple method for bone age assessment during the years of accelerated growth. We decided to check the usefulness and the accuracy of the Sauvegrain method in Indian children. A team of two pediatric orthopaedic surgeons and a radiologist scored elbow X-rays of 80 healthy children (40 boys and 40 girls), using the Sauvegrain method twice. Interobserver reliability and intraobserver reproducibility of the Sauvegrain scoring were assessed. There was a very strong correlation between all observers in both rounds (r = > 0.8) and an excellent reproducibility by the same observer in both rounds (r = 0.955). Chronological and bone age are considered the same if the difference between them is less than 6 months. With this criterion bone and chronological ages matched in > 37% of boys and girls, similar to the study done in French children. In the nonmatching group, more children had delayed bone age compared to their chronological age. The Sauvegrain method of bone age assessment described for French children was found to be useful in estimating bone age in Indian children. It is especially helpful in the clinical practice for detecting mismatch between the chronological and the radiological age before undertaking guided growth or epiphysiodesis.