PYOGENIC ARTHRITIS WITH PATHOLOGIC DISLOCATION OF THE HIP IN INFANTS

Abstract

This report presents a study of 10 subjects treated at the Philadelphia Children's Hospital who had pyogenic arthritis with pathologic dislocations of one or both hips before 18 months of age. Four subjects have been followed seventeen years (1 twenty-eight years). Their femoral and pelvic growth appears to be complete. Two additional subjects have been followed eleven years. One subject, who had been followed four years prior to the war, has not subsequently been discovered. Three subjects have been admitted to the hospital in the past three years. The study was prompted by two observations: first, the delay in diagnosing the infection of the hip and the resulting dislocation in infants; second, the resulting changes in the hip joint which were at variance with those observed in children with sepsis of the hips. These changes which took place during growth and development were manifest in four ways. ETIOLOGY In every