A clinical and radiological study was conducted on 97 total hip replacements performed for congenital hip dislocation in 79 patients between 1989 and 1998 using a three-dimensional custom-made cementless stem. The mean age at operation was 48 years (17 to 72) and the mean follow-up was for 123 months (83 to 182). According to the Crowe classification, there were 37 class I, 28 class II, 13 class III and 19 class IV hips. The mean leg lengthening was 25 mm (5 to 58), the mean pre-operative femoral anteversion was 38.6° (2° to 86°) and the mean correction in the prosthetic neck was −23.6° (−71° to 13°). The mean Harris hip score improved from 58 (15 to 84) to 93 (40 to 100) points. A revision was required in six hips (6.2%). The overall survival rate was 89.5% (95% confidence interval 89.2 to 89.8) at 13 years when two hips were at risk. This custom-made cementless femoral component, which can be accommodated in the abnormal proximal femur and will correct the anteversion and frontal offset, provided good results without recourse to proximal femoral corrective osteotomy.
1. A scheme was started in 1960 with the object of ensuring that the hips of all babies born in the North-Eastern Region of Scotland were examined shortly after birth. 2. 1,671 children with suspected abnormalities have been seen during the ensuing ten years, and the findings are discussed. 3. Clinical examination is essential. Radiographic examination of the newborn is not necessary and may be misleading, but it does prove that some hips with limited abduction but no instability are in fact dislocated. 4. Treatment is not started when the diagnosis is made shortly after birth. The children are re-examined at three weeks, when spontaneous recovery has occurred in about half. The others, whether they show instability or only limitation of abduction of the hips, are treated in a simple splint until they are three months old. Any residual stiffness is an indication for further splintage. 5. The first radiographs are taken when the children are three months old, and no child is discharged until the radiographs show that the upper femoral epiphyses have appeared and are in normal position. 6. We appreciate that we are treating some children who would have recovered spontaneously, but we do not know how to distinguish them. There is no evidence that splintage harms a hip. 7. Eighty-six children (5 per cent of the total) needed operation usually because the diagnosis was missed at birth. 8. Children with familial joint laxity or genu recurvatum should be examined especially carefully for associated hip abnormality. 9. The incidence of abnormality of the hips at birth is about one in fifty live births.
We describe a patient with cerebral palsy, of normal intelligence, who could not walk but who by the age of 16 had been successfully managed with a staged bilateral total hip arthroplasty using a constrained liner.
We describe an unusual injury to the upper cervical spine sustained during ejection from an aircraft. MRI provided an accurate and direct diagnosis of the severe ligamentous injuries.
