[The hip joints of preterm neonates in sonographic evaluation]

The introduction of sonography to the evalution of the hip joint, allowed for the non-invasive examination in preterm neonates and thus assessment of the development their hip joints. MATERIAL AND METHODS. The examined group consisted of 143 preterm neonates with the body weight by delivery lower then 2000 grams (286 hip joints) and the control group of 31 children from term delveries forming the control group. The sonographic examination was conducted stricktly according to the rules presented by Graf. First examination was performed averagely in the 3rd week of life, second avg. in the 14th, third in avg. the 23rd, fourth avg inthe 33r week of life. Wyniki. In the first examination, done in the 3rd week of life it was noticed that highest rate of the hips Ia appeared in the group I (newborns with the lowest bogy weight), and together with the increase in body weight the incidence of such hips decreased, when the incidence of type IIa hips increased at the same time. At the final examination no statistically significant differences were found between the hip joints and no dysplastic hips were found. Wnioski. According to our results, we found that preterm delivery is not a risk factor for the developmetal hip dysplasia.