Selective sonographic screening for developmental dysplasia of the hip - increasing trends in late diagnosis

There are concerns that selective sonographic screening for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) may be suboptimal. Our aim was to test this hypothesis by identifying trends in presentation and surgical treatment in patients with DDH. This is a retrospective review of children born between 1997-2018 who were treated surgically for DDH at our sub- regional paediatric orthopaedic unit. Demographic data, risk factors, age of diagnosis and surgical treatments were analysed. Late diagnosis was defined as greater than 4 months. 103 children (14 male, 89 female) underwent surgery. 93 hips were operated for dislocation and 21 for dysplasia. 13 patients presented with bilateral hip dislocations. The median age at diagnosis was 10 months (95% CI: 4-15). 62/103 (60.2%) were diagnosed late (after 4 months) and the median age for diagnosis in this group was 18.5 months (95% CI: 16-20.5). Significantly more patients were referred late (p=0.0077). The presence of risk factors (breech presentation or family history) was associated with early diagnosis. Over the duration of our study the operation rate per 1000 live births gradually increased, and on Poisson regression analysis there was a statistically significant increasing trend towards late diagnosis in recent years (p=0.0237), which necessitated more aggressive surgical management. In the UK, the current selective sonographic screening programme for DDH has shown a deterioration over the years of this study and this questions its current effectiveness. It appears that the majority of irreducible hip dislocations are diagnosed late, with an increased need for surgical management.