Treatment of Congenital Dislocation of the Hip by Closed Reduction

Rowe, Sung Man; Park, Il Sung; Chung, Go Hun; Kim, Hyung Soon

Abstract

The closed reduction has made an important contribution to the treatment of children under the age of 24 months. The authors report a clinical experience of 20 patients(21 hips) with congenital dislocation of hip who were treated by closed reduction at the department of Orthopaedic Surgery of Chonnam University Hospital. There were total 230 patients(237 hips) disgnosed as having congenital dislocated hip for 10 years from 1978 to 1987 and 20 patients of them were included in this study. The follow-up period ranged from 1 year to 10 years with an average 3 years. The results are as follows: l. All but one were girls, comprising 19 (20 hips) of 20 patients. 2. The age at closed reduction were under 6 months in 2, 7 to 12 months in 4, 13 to 18 months in 10 and 19 to 24 months in 4. 3. Of the 21 hips treated by closed reduction, 17 hips achieved a satisfactory result(81%). The other four hips had redislocation(2 hips) and subluxation(2 hips). 4. Four additional treatments were open reduction in 3 and Salter innominate osteotomy in l. 5. The acetabular and center-edge angle improved from the averge 36.1 and -33.7 degrees at the first visit to the average 22.1 and 19.9 degrees at the final follow up(17.3 and 20.1 degrees in normal side). 6. An avascular necrosis was observed in two patients, though no joint stiffness was observed in them. In conclusion, this study proves that the closed reduction is a simple and successful method in treating congenital dislocation of the hip under the age of 24 months(81% success rate).