Eight patients were seen with idiopathic chondrolysis in nine hips, with
from one to eight years' follow-up. The adolescent patients showed
characteristic diagnostic patterns--patients in the hip and a limp. The
disease occurs most frequently in black girls and in them it tends to be
more severe. Threre is progressive loss of articular cartilage, frequently
progressing to flexion-adduction contracture and fibrous ankylosis. The
pathological process in our patients mainly consisted of chronic synovitis
and loss of articular cartilate in the weight-bearing surface of the
femoral head. The patients with mild cases were satisfactorily treated with
physical therapy, non-weight-bearing, and analgesics. The other hips,
however, did best when allowed to undergo fibrous ankylosis with the hip in
a functional position.