Abstract
1 . The results of compression arthrodesis of the hip have been studied in fifty-six patients. There was one post-operative death from pulmonary embolism on the tenth day.
2. Bony union for the whole series (fifty-five patients) was achieved in 76·4 per cent. Sound fibrous ankylosis, indistinguishable from bony union clinically and functionally, was achieved in 10·9 per cent. Residual movement occurred in 12·7 per cent.
3. Thirty-five patients were treated by the standard technique of eight weeks in plaster, followed by full weight bearing, irrespective of whether any movement was detected on clinical testing. 82·8 per cent achieved sound bony union; 5·7 per cent achieved sound fibrous ankylosis, and residual movement occurred in 11·4 per cent.
4. Ten patients were treated without plaster protection; six achieved bony union; three had sound fibrous ankylosis and one had residual movement. Healing was delayed in this group and there was more residual deformity.
5. 67·5 per cent of all patients recovered full knee range. Only one patient with reduced range had knee flexion of less than 90 degrees. Twenty-four of the thirty-five patients treated by the standard technique of eight weeks in plaster were examined. Fifteen had full knee movement; in only four was knee flexion less than 120 degrees and in no case was it less than 90 degrees.
6. Return to full activity was rapid. Sixty per cent of patients returned to work within six months and 80 per cent within nine months of surgery. Five of the six patients examined with residual movement in the hip joint were back at work within six months of surgery.
7. This study lends support to the view that arthrodesis of the hip, in the presence of normal function in the opposite hip, is compatible with vigorous and full activity.
