Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions targeting only the acetabular side in the surgical treatment of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease.

Abstract

This study aims to show the effectiveness of only acetabular-side surgeries for hips affected by Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease. Twelve patients who underwent two different acetabular osteotomies -pembersal osteotomy and triple osteotomy - were evaluated retrospectively. Clinically, patients were examined for hip range of motion, flexion contracture, and hip extensor and abductor strength; the results were evaluated using the Harris hip score. Radiologically, the hips were assessed according to three different radiological parameters: lateral center edge angle, acetabular width, and acetabular head index at the preoperative, early postoperative, and last follow-up periods. The hips were classified according to Herring classification preoperatively and according to Stulberg classification at the last follow-up. Statistically significant improvement was observed in patients both clinically and radiologically. It was observed that pembersal osteotomy significantly corrected the lateral center edge angle better than triple osteotomy while also correcting the other two radiological parameters, but no statistically significant difference was observed between these methods. Only acetabular-side surgeries are effective and safe methods that do not require femoral intervention for hips affected by Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease and that do not show significant complications.