Objective: To review our results with hip joint reconstruction in severe spastic hip disease.

Design: Descriptive case series.

Setting: A tertiary referral medical center.

Subjects: All the patients who underwent a hip reconstruction procedure because of SHD were retrospectively evaluated. Twenty-five patients with 32 involved femoral necks were treated between 1997 and 2003. All of the patients had a migration index greater than 40% with 8 of them having a migration index of over 65%. 15 patients had total involvement type CP and 10 patients had diplegic type CP.

Intervention: Hip joint reconstruction comprised of varus derotation osteotomy and a periacetabular osteotomy such as the Dega osteotomy, and when necessary an open reposition of the hip joint was performed.

Results: Good coverage of the femoral head was achieved in 23 of the patients and in 30 of the femoral heads. There was no difference between the high migration index group and the low migration index group. In two cases progressive posterior dislocation continued following the operation, attributed to incomplete correction of the posterior acetabulum. One patient had an intra-operative fracture of the femoral neck. The results were similar in the more severe and less severe groups.

Conclusions: Hip reconstruction has favorable results in all types of CP. We found no difference between the group with high migration index and the low migration index concerning complications and outcome. A high migration index should not be considered as reason not to reconstruct the hip joint. The only contraindication for this procedure is osteoarthritic changes of the hip joint.