Clinical Application of the Ultrasound in Painful Pediatric Hip

Kim, Sung Joon; Whang, Kuhn Sung; Chung, Hyun Kee; Joo, Kyung Bin; Leem, Jong Sun

Abstract

The diagnosis of painful hips of the children are very difficult in their early stage of diseases. Transient synovitis, Legg-Calve-Perthes' diseas juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and pyogenic hip are very similar in clinical manifestation and plane radiology. But the treatment methods and prognoses are very different, so it is very important to make an accurate diagnosis and differential diagnosis as early as possible. In the above mentioned diseases hip joint effusion is one of common manifestations, so we studied the hip joint effusion by ultrasonography in 49 children with painful hips and also we studied both hips of healthy children to determine the criteria of the normal hip joint. And the results are summerized as follows: l. Ultrasonography was very good method for detection of hip joint effusion. 2. In healthy children, the average bone-to-capsule distance was 2.95mm. 3. In children patients with unilateral painful hip, the average bone-to-capsule distance was 2.96mm, so it was very similar to that of healthy children. 4. The difference more than 2mm between both hips was abnormal. 5. In 49 children with painful hips, over all positive rate was 63.3%.