Cameron Mathison Discovers Advances in Treating Perthes

Sept. 25, 2009 — -- Cameron Mathison is 33 years older and about two feet taller than 7-year-old Luke Negrin, but the two have one unique characteristic in common: They both had the degenerative bone disease called Perthes.

Perthes syndrome, a hip disease that doctors say attacks the femur and affects about five out of every 100,000 children, forced Mathison to wear large leg braces for four long years as a child. In the years since, while Mathison was off developing into a soap opera star and a "Good Morning America" special contributor, treatment for the disease evolved from leg braces.

It wasn't until Mathison told "GMA" his own story about his struggle with Perthes that he realized how much things had changed.

"So, am I hearing that I may have worn that brace for four years for no reason?" Mathison asked Dr. Joshua Hyman of NewYork Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, only half-joking.

"Well, partly," Hyman said. "There's little doubt, I think, in the pediatric orthopedic community that immobilizing the children with Perthes is probably not the best thing for them."

Click here to read Mathison's story about his childhood struggle with Perthes.

For Luke, the trouble began when he started limping two years ago. The New Jersey boy's parents first thought it was growing pains, but it got worse.

"I used to put him to bed and he used to tell us, 'My leg hurts. My leg hurts,'" Luke's father, Paul Negrin, said. "It just got progressively worse ... [it was] hard to move his legs."