Treatment of slipped capital femoral epiphysis with a cannulated-screw technique.

Sixty patients (eighty hips) who had slipped capital femoral epiphysis were treated by epiphyseodesis with a cannulated-screw technique. Forty-nine patients (sixty-seven hips) were available for follow-up, forty-four (sixty hips) of whom were followed for a minimum of two years. Thirty-five patients (forty-six hips) were followed until the hardware was removed. Of seventy-two hips in which contrast medium was injected, arthrographic results were obtained in three. In these three hips, there was evidence of pre-existing narrowing of the joint space. Four patients (six hips) who did not have evidence of penetration by a screw or guide-wire had evidence of either pre-existing chondrolysis or osteoarthrosis. Chondrolysis did not develop postoperatively in any patient who had no evidence of it preoperatively.