Is hip dysplasia a common deformity in skeletally mature patients with hereditary multiple exostoses?

BACKGROUND

Various deformities appear in hereditary multiple exostoses (HMEs). Deformities around the knee or ankle joints are easy to detect in this disease because such deformities are visible in appearance. However, deformities in the hip joints of skeletally mature patients are not well understood because their tumors are invisible.

METHODS

To understand deformities around the hip joint in HMEs, we investigated 36 hip joints in 19 skeletally mature patients (12 males, 7 females). The mean age at last X-ray imaging investigation was 29.2 years (14.5-66.5 years). We evaluated the lesions of exostoses around the acetabulum and proximal femur, Wiberg's center-edge angle (CEA), neck-shaft angle (NSA), acetabular depth-width ratio (ADR), and Sharp's acetabular angle.

RESULTS

No exostoses were present in four hips of three cases. Thirty-one hip joints had exostoses on the medial side of the femoral neck. Exostoses existed on the lateral side of the femoral neck in 16 hips. None of the patients had acetabuluar tumors. One patient experienced pain because of impingement between the acetabular rim and medial tumors of the femoral neck. The increase in NSA, which is an index of proximal femoral deformity, was common with a mean NSA of 147.3 °. Two indices of acetabular deformity, Sharp's angle and ADR, were within normal limits with a mean Sharp's angle of 41.3 ° and mean ADR of 269. The average CEA was 29.9 °.

CONCLUSIONS

Hip dysplasia is not necessarily common in skeletally mature patients with HMEs. To determine the possibility of hip dysplasia in skeletally immature patients with HMEs, ADR may be a useful reference index.