Purpose of the study: the Pavlik harness has been used for the treatment of congenital hip dislocation since it was designed by Arnold Pavlik in 1950. There remains however a certain debate concerning the best moment to start treatment and its duration. We advocate early use of the Pavlic harness for a short period.

Material and methods: Forty-five hips (34 infants) were treated. The diagnosis of dislocation was clinical. The Barlow and Ortolani maneuvers were used to search for clinical instability classed as «positive dislocation test» or «negative test but presence of piston movement». Different classifications of positive tests were used to search for an association with increasing severity of hip instability. Static and dynamic ultrasound was then used to confirm the diagnosis of hip dislocation. A Pavlik harness was installed immediately after diagnosis of congenital hip dislocation, on the day of birth if possible, according to the precepts proposed by the inventor.

Results: Among the 43 hips analyzed I the present series, reduction and stabilization was successfully achieved with the Pavlic harness in 40 used as early as possible for a short a period as possible. This 95.6% success rate (2 failures, 0 complications) was achieved within 3 o 8 weeks.

Discussion: Our results are comparable with other series reporting early use of the Mubarak method. The duration of treatment was shorter with our therapeutic method. We did not attempt to treat the dysplasia, spontaneous regression was monitored radiographically.

Conclusion: We consider congenital hip displasia to be a therapeutic emergency. Treatment should be undertaken as soon as the dislocating intrauterine constraints cease. Early use of the Pavlik harness on easily dislocated or dislocated reducible hips has given excellent results. The shorter treatment duration does not lead to any recurrence as long as clinical stability with formal radiographic confirmation at treatment end.