Our approach to the conservative treatment of the dislocated hip in developmental dysplasia

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of traction in achieving closed reduction of a dislocated hip. We evaluated 38 hips in 29 consecutive patients who had been treated at our department between January 1999 and December 2001. There were 26 girls and 3 boys and the average age was 8 weeks. The minimal duration of follow-ups was 12 months after closed reduction. We achieved 32 concentricaly reduced hips, the barriers to the concentric reduction were demonstrated by arthrography in 5 hips an 1 hip redislocated after removal of the spica cast. Avascular necrosis of the femoral head developed in no conservatively treated hip. The traction reduction method is preferred at our department because of high rate of success without damaging the femoral head.