Morphology of untreated bilateral congenital dislocation of the hips in a seventy-four-year-old man.

Two untreated completely dislocated hips were examined pathologically in a 74-year-old male dissecting room cadaver. The femoral heads bilaterally were 9 cm above the acetabular fossae. They lay adjacent to each ilium with no secondary acetabulum formation. A thickened and markedly elongated fibrous capsule appeared to be the major structure that had checked further migration of the femoral heads during weight-bearing. The femoral heads, although slightly flattened medially and somewhat smaller in size than in the normal adult, showed no degenerative arthritis. Dysplastic acetabular fossae were filled with soft tissue. Bone-to-bone contact with secondary degenerative changes was present only where the femurs, at the level of the lesser trochanters, rubbed against the overhanging superior acetabular rims.