False profile radiography for the evaluation of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease

False profile radiography (FPR), as proposed by Lequesne and de Sèze, depicts the pathology on the anterolateral acetabular wall and femoral head. A study was conducted to find out the differences between normal anteroposterior radiography and FPR. Twenty-seven patients with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease who had not been operated on previously and 50 recruits without any pathology were studied for the acetabulum-head index of Heyman-Herndon (HHI) and center-edge angles (CEs) in antero-posterior radiographs and VCA angles in FPR. The VCA angle is most useful to detect anterolateral coverage of the femoral head in lateral pillar C hips. FPR is an easy, reliable and cheap technique to evaluate the anterolateral parts of the femoral head, and the acetabulum.