[Luxation of the hip and preventive examinations]

The present report on the possibilities and limitations of screening and its importance for the prevention of congenital hip dislocation is based on many years of practical experience in preventive medicine and equally extensive study of oblique presentation and congenital dislocation of the hip joint. The paper presents a review of the various forms of malformation of the hip and following a short discussion of the origins and prognoses of these various forms, deals with the various diagnoses. Two main examination periods are important for diagnosis: the neonatal period and the 4th month of life. In the neonatal period a hip joint is unstable if the Roser-Ortolani sign is positive. Other clinical symptoms are found in addition in the much rarer congenital dislocation of the hip. The advantage of examination in the neonatal period is that it enables the unstable hip joint to be treated immediately. As a rule this preventive treatment, involving little risk, results in normal development of the hip joint, instead of the possible defective development to hip dislocation. These possibilities in the neonatal period are limited by the degree of experience and the extent of cooperation between examiners and therapists. In the second main examination period, in the 4th month of life, the malformations which occur post partum should be identified. In contrast to the obviousness of the clinical hip joint findings in the neonatal period" clear clinical hip joint symptoms can only be expected in the 4th month of life with the most severe forms of hip dislocation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)