Sixty patients (eighty hips) who had slipped capital femoral epiphysis
were treated by epiphyseodesis with a cannulated-screw technique.
Forty-nine patients (sixty-seven hips) were available for follow-up,
forty-four (sixty hips) of whom were followed for a minimum of two years.
Thirty-five patients (forty-six hips) were followed until the hardware was
removed. Of seventy-two hips in which contrast medium was injected,
arthrographic results were obtained in three. In these three hips, there
was evidence of pre-existing narrowing of the joint space. Four patients
(six hips) who did not have evidence of penetration by a screw or
guide-wire had evidence of either pre-existing chondrolysis or
osteoarthrosis. Chondrolysis did not develop postoperatively in any patient
who had no evidence of it preoperatively.