Iliopsoas transfers in children with myelomeningocele.

Abstract

Thirty-two paralytic hips in seventeen children with myelomeningocele and a neural deficit at the fourth lumbar level were treated with iliopsoas transfers. Four to fourteen years later, all of the hips were reduced and nineteen had a center-edge angle of more than 25 degrees. This result was more consistent in the hips of the ten patients who had had a combined varus osteotomy and transfer. All but three of the transferred muscles were active: twenty-one had abduction and fifteen had extension against gravity. We concluded that the procedure has value, but that it does not produce a normal hip.