Surgical treatment of hip dislocation in early infancy

Abstract The necessity to operate on hip dislocation has decreased because the natural history of this congenital disease has been completely changed by using clinical and ultrasonographic screening. At present in our country surgical reduction is indicated in the rare cases of true congenital severe hip dislocation or in the few cases missed during screening. Our long experience in the treatment of such pathology since the start of the 1960s is summarized in this paper in which we describe our indications in surgical treatment of dislocated and subluxated hips affected by DDH. We point out our approach to open the dislocated hip laterally explaining the advantage of this particular and not common approach. We also describe the radiological assessment necessary to evaluate residual dysplasia in order to plan the necessary pelvic or femoral osteotomy to correct these residual joint alterations.