About the disease
Hip dysplasia is a congenital orthopedic pathology. Worldwide every 7 newborn has infant hip dysplasia. Word dysplasia literally means the hip, that was not developed finally. Dysplasia can be "moderate" and "severe", depending on the case. infant Hip dysplasia treatment for infants depends on the age of the patient.
If there were some complications during the birth, infant hip dysplasia can also appear. Sometimes, congenitally normal hip joint may stop in the further development, and in that case infant hip dysplasia is "acquired".
The main reasons for that are:
- Hereditary disorders
- Pathology of pregnancy
- The ligament malfunction
Causes of the dysplasia in infants are not yet fully understood.
The only fact known to medicine is that dysplasia is more common for girls. It is due to the fact that during pregnancy a woman begins to produce a hormone, which makes the joints and muscles soft, resilient for a woman to give birth. This hormone not only affects the joints and muscle tissue of future mothers, it also affects the joints of the baby.
The second factor that can result in the development of hip dysplasia in children is the first birth. It is proved that during the first pregnancy this hormone is produced in larger amounts that during all next pregnancies.
Age of the parent may also play a role in the development of dysplasia.
Symptoms
- Dislocating form of the thighs
- Hips are assymetric to each other
- Dislocated femoral head position
However, these features can not 100% prove dysplasia, and even a healthy child may have these symptoms, without having the actual illness.
Diagnosis
Only objective research methods can prove the pathology - X-ray and ultrasound. The diagnosis of "hip dysplasia in children" should be done by the doctor, but sometimes parents can also do a check-up on their own. The check-up includes such steps:
- Parents need to try to bend the legs of the child, moving them from the side of the thigh to the knee. If one leg moves above the other, it is an abnormality.
- Parents can also try to spread the legs to the side. If one leg is going better and the other worse, it`s also a sign of dysplasia.
Usually this check-up needs to be done before the child is 3 months old.
Treatment
Dysplasia treatment usually has the duration of three months. But this applies only to those cases when the disease was detected in time and treatment started immediately. Restoring the normal joint development is usually done under the supervision of a pediatrician.
- Pavlik harness is the most famous treatment in infants. In 1946 in Prague, Czech orthopedic Arnold Pavlik reported the successful treatment of congenital dislocation of the hip with a new "a functional method of treatment." He created the rigid harness, that was limiting movements in the hip joints. The principle of this method is to ensure that the child's legs bend at the knee and hip joints,with the help of harness. Since then the Pavlik harness became the golden standard of pediatric orthopedics. In the modern medicine the Pavlik harness is orthopedic device, made of soft fabric.
- Massage and physiotherapy. The main goal of physiotherapy is strengthening the hip muscles and coordinating the motor activity of the child.Physiotherapy aims to stabilize the hip joint and to restore normal range of child`s motion. Physiotherapy is used at all stages of medical treatment.
- Surgery treatment with pelvic and (or) femoral osteotomy is a surgery during which pelvic or femur are repaired depending on the location of anatomic damage.
- Hip replacement is used only in progressed stages of the disease.
Authors: Dr. Nadezhda Ivanisova, Dr. Farrukh Ahmed
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