Over a ten-year period, fifty-one congenitally dislocated hips in
forty-one patients, whose ages ranged from twelve to thirty-six months,
required open reduction. Supplemental procedures such as derotational
osteotomy, pericapsular (Pemberton) osteotomy, and femoral shortening were
performed as necessary. All of the patients have been followed for at least
two years (average, 6.1 years). No patient had a significant limp,
Trendelenburg gait, or avascular necrosis. Using Severin's classification
of radiographic evaluation, twenty-nine hips (57 per cent) were rate as
excellent and eighteen hips (35 per cent), as good. In our experience, open
reduction of the hip together with correction of acetabular and femoral
deformities affords the patient in the one to three-year-old age range an
excellent chance of obtaining an anatomically satisfactory hip.