Transepiphyseal separation of the neck of the femur following grand mal seizures is described in two children with cerebral palsy. Closed reduction and percutaneous fixation was followed by a period in a hip spica. Although the incidence of avascular necrosis of the femoral head is high following such injury, this has not occurred in these patients at a follow-up of 18 months

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Echocardiography is commonly used in hip fracture patients to evaluate perioperative cardiac risk. However, echocardiography that delays surgical repair may be harmful. The objective of this study was to compare surgical wait times, mortality, length of stay (LOS), and healthcare costs for similar hip fracture patients evaluated with and without preoperative echocardiograms.

In spina bifida the femoral neck can develop either the well-known coxa valga or the hitherto unreported coxa vara. Twenty-three cases of coxa vara in spina bifida are reported. These result from spontaneous separation of the upper femoral epiphysis (10 cases), spontaneous fracture of the femoral neck (three cases) and iatrogenic avascular necrosis of the upper femoral epiphysis (10 cases)

We have reviewed 202 consecutive primary hip replacements using a Freeman cemented femoral component after a mean period of follow-up of 64 months (23 to 113). There was only one revision for aseptic loosening. Retention of the femoral neck may act to reduce the torsional and shear forces at the implant-cement interface and may provide a seal against the migration of polyethylene-laden joint fluid in the potential joint space. The cemented Freeman femoral component with retention of the femoral neck was successful for up to nine years

We describe an apparently unreported finding during hip operations: a tear at the insertion of gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. This defect may well be known to many surgeons with experience of hip replacement and hemiarthroplasty for fractures of the neck of the femur, but a Medline search has failed to find a previous description. We made a prospective study of 50 consecutive patients with fractures of the neck of the femur to quantify the incidence of this condition: 11 (22%) had such a tear

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The diagnosis of joint infections is an inexact science using combinations of blood inflammatory markers and microscopy, culture, and sensitivity of synovial fluid (SF). There is potential for small molecule metabolites in infected SF to act as infection markers that could improve accuracy and speed of detection. The objective of this study was to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to identify small molecule differences between infected and noninfected human SF.

We describe a case of oncogenic osteomalacia in an adult male who presented with low back pain and bilateral hip pain. Extensive investigations had failed to find a cause. A plain pelvic radiograph showed Looser’s zones in both femoral necks. MRI confirmed the presence of insufficiency fractures bilaterally in the femoral head and neck. Biochemical investigations confirmed osteomalacia which was unresponsive to treatment with vitamin D and calcium. A persistently low serum phosphate level suggested a diagnosis of hypophosphataemic osteomalacia. The level of fibroblast growth factor-23 was highly raised, indicating the cause as oncogenic osteomalacia. This was confirmed on positron-emission tomography, MRI and excision of a benign fibrous histiocytoma following a rapid recovery. The diagnosis of oncogenic osteomalacia may be delayed due to the non-specific presenting symptoms. Subchondral insufficiency fractures of the femoral head may be missed unless specifically looked for

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Hip displacement, common in patients with cerebral palsy (CP), causes pain and hinders adequate care. Hip reconstructive surgery (HRS) is performed to treat hip displacement; however, only a few studies have quantitatively assessed femoral head sphericity after HRS. The aim of this study was to quantitatively assess improvement in hip sphericity after HRS in patients with CP.

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The aim of this study was to identify modifiable risk factors associated with mortality in patients requiring revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) for periprosthetic hip fracture.

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The gluteus minimus (GMin) and gluteus medius (GMed) have unique structural and functional segments that may be affected to varying degrees, by end-stage osteoarthritis (OA) and normal ageing. We used data from patients with end-stage OA and matched healthy controls to 1) quantify the atrophy of the GMin and GMed in the two groups and 2) describe the distinct patterns of the fatty infiltration in the different segments of the GMin and GMed in the two groups.

We report an independent prospective review of the first 230 Birmingham hip resurfacings in 212 patients at a mean follow-up of five years (4 to 6). Two patients, one with a loose acetabular component and the other with suspected avascular necrosis of the femoral head, underwent revision. There were two deaths from unrelated causes and one patient was lost to follow-up. The survivorship with the worst-case scenario was 97.8% (95% confidence interval 95.8 to 99.5). The mean Harris hip score improved significantly (paired t-test, p < 0.05) from 62.54 (8 to 92) pre-operatively to 97.7 (61 to 100) at a mean of three years (2.1 to 4.3), then deteriorated slightly to a mean of 95.2 (47 to 100) at a mean of five years. The mean flexion improved from 91.5° (25° to 140°) to 110.4° (80° to 145°) at a mean of three years with no further improvement at five years (111.2°; 70° to 160°). On radiological review at five years, one patient had a progressive lucent line around the acetabular component and six had progressive lucent lines around the femoral component. A total of 18 femoral components (8%) had migrated into varus and those with lucent lines present migrated a mean of 3.8° (1.02° to 6.54°) more than the rest. Superolateral notching of the femoral neck and reactive sclerosis at the tip of the peg of the femoral component were associated with the presence of lucent lines (chi-squared test, p < 0.05), but not with migration of the femoral component, and are of unknown significance. Our results with the Birmingham hip resurfacing continue to be satisfactory at a mean follow-up of five years

We studied the morphology of the contralateral femur in 10 patients with subcapital fractures, 10 with trochanteric fractures and 10 with unilateral osteoarthritis. We found that the patients with trochanteric fractures had a significantly shorter femoral neck (4.5 +/- 0.5 cm) than patients with subcapital fractures or osteoarthritis (5.4 +/- 0.4 cm). It may be that this difference in femoral neck length is related to the site at which a proximal femoral fracture occurs

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Infection after surgery increases treatment costs and is associated with increased mortality. Hip fracture patients have historically had high rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization and surgical site infection (SSI). This paper reports the impact of routine MRSA screening and the “cleanyourhands” campaign on rates of MRSA SSI and patient outcome.

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To compare changes in gait kinematics and walking speed 24 months after conventional (C-MLS) and minimally invasive (MI-MLS) multilevel surgery for children with diplegic cerebral palsy (CP).

The hips of twenty full-term African neonates have been examined in detail to determine any anatomical factors which might explain the difference in the incidence of congenital dislocation of the hip in the African and in the Caucasian. Measurements included the degree of anteversion of the femoral neck and the acetabulum and the diameter and depth of the acetabulum. The acetabulum tended to be deeper and to vary within a much narrower range than that reported for Caucasians, lending indirect support to the theoretical role of acetabular dysplasia in the aetiology of congenital dislocation of the hip. Measurements of the anteversion of the acetabulum and femoral neck were similar to those given for Caucasians

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Surgical treatment of hip fracture is challenging; the bone is porotic and fixation failure can be catastrophic. Novel implants are available which may yield superior clinical outcomes. This study compared the clinical effectiveness of the novel X-Bolt Hip System (XHS) with the sliding hip screw (SHS) for the treatment of fragility hip fractures.

Metal-on-metal hip resurfacing was performed for developmental dysplasia in 96 hips in 85 patients, 78 in women and 18 in men, with a mean age at the time of surgery of 43 years (14 to 65). These cases were matched for age, gender, operating surgeon and date of operation with a group of patients with primary osteoarthritis who had been treated by resurfacing, to provide a control group of 96 hips (93 patients). A clinical and radiological follow-up study was performed. The dysplasia group were followed for a mean of 4.4 years (2.0 to 8.5) and the osteoarthritis group for a mean of 4.5 years (2.2 to 9.4). Of the dysplasia cases, 17 (18%) were classified as Crowe grade III or IV. There were five (5.2%) revisions in the dysplasia group and none in the osteoarthritic patients. Four of the failures were due to acetabular loosening and the other sustained a fracture of the neck of femur. There was a significant difference in survival between the two groups (p = 0.02). The five-year survival was 96.7% (95% confidence interval 90.0 to 100) for the dysplasia group and 100% (95% confidence interval 100 to 100) for the osteoarthritic group. There was no significant difference in the median Oxford hip score between the two groups at any time during the study. The medium-term results of metal-on-metal hip resurfacing in all grades of developmental dysplasia are encouraging, although they are significantly worse than in a group of matched patients with osteoarthritis treated in the same manner

Aims

To determine mortality risk after first revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) for periprosthetic femoral fracture (PFF), and to compare this to mortality risk after primary and first revision THA for other common indications.

It has been shown that raised intracapsular pressure causes avascular necrosis of the femoral head in experimental animals, but the relevance of this to clinical fractures of the femoral neck is controversial. We have studied 19 patients with intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck by pressure measurement and by ultrasonography to demonstrate capsular distension. The intra-articular pressure in Garden Grade I and II fractures averaged 66.4 mmHg with a maximum of 145 mmHg. In 10 Garden Grade III and IV fractures the average pressure was 28 mmHg with a maximum of 65 mmHg. Most of the recorded intracapsular pressures were high enough to have caused possible vascular embarrassment, and it is suggested that early decompression of the haemarthrosis should be considered