Treatment of slipped capital femoral epiphysis with severe displacement (report of 14 hips in 12 non Caucasian patients).

This paper presents a report of a study of 14 hips in 12 non Caucasian patients treated for severe slipped capital femoral epiphysis. There were four Sudanese, two Syrians, and six Libyan patients. Three hips in two patients had severe acute slip and eleven hips in ten patients had severe chronic slip. Patients with severe acute slip were treated by closed reduction and internal fixation. Patients with severe chronic slip were treated by open replacement of the femoral epiphysis using the procedure advocated by Dunn and Angel[1]. One patient treated for acute severe slip developed over reduction of the epiphysis after closed manipulation. The results were good in all the three hips with acute slip. Two hips with severe chronic slip developed avascular necrosis and chondrolysis. Considering the results in this small series, closed reduction and internal fixation is a satisfactory method of treatment for severe acute slip while results of open replacement of the epiphysis for severe chronic slip has high incidence of complication in non caucasian patients as compared to those reported for caucasians.