Pavlik harness applications for congenital dislocation of the hip. How short can they be made?

We studied the results of different durations of application of the Pavlik harness for congenital dislocation or subluxation of the hip. For this, 110 hips in 106 patients were successfully reduced and examined when 6 years old. Dislocation and subluxation cases were divided into two groups: a long-term (4 months for dislocation and 3 months for subluxation) and a short-term (3 months for the former and 2 months for the latter) group. We compared them by roentgenographic analysis. The association between the long- and short-term groups was tested using statistical analyses. There were no significant differences between them, except for one item in subluxation. Therefore, we can say that the duration of application of the Pavlik harness should be reduced to 3 months for dislocation and 2 months for subluxation.