[Surgical treatment of the snapping hip]

Snapping hip (Coxa saltans) is the abrupt sliding of the iliotibial tract over the greater trochanter. In the case of pain, which cannot be alleviated by a conservative treatment, an operation is advised. The methods of operation applied up to this day showed--especially because of their high recidive-quotas--great disadvantages. In a detailed post-operational check-up over the past 20 years the new method of "diagonal notching" (27 cases) developed at the Orthopedic Hospital München-Harlaching was compared to the old method of fixing the tract according to M. Lange (24 cases). After "diagonal notching" the snapping occurred again seven times less than after fixing the tract. After "diagonal notching" only 4% of the patients had to be re-operated, however, after fixing the tract a re-operation was necessary on 38% of the patients. 91% of the patients were relieved from their pain almost completely after "diagonal notching", compared to only 50% after fixing the tract. Considering that the "diagonal notching" offers simple technics of operation and better results than other methods, the "diagonal notching" should be used as method of choice to eliminate a snapping hip.