Complications after cuneiform osteotomy for moderately or severely slipped capital femoral epiphysis

Wedge osteotomy of the femoral neck for slipped capital femoral epiphysis was performed in seventy-seven hips of seventy-one children at Gillette Children's Hospital during the period 1938 to 1973. The major complications were avascular necrosis (28.5 per cent) and cartilage necrosis (37.6 per cent). This high incidence of severe complications led to the use of an osteotomy through the base of the neck for the treatment of severely slipped capital femoral epiphysis which has given satisfactory results in six hips to date.