[Early short-term treatment of neonatal hip instability with the Pavlik harness].

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The purpose of this work was to study early short-term treatment of reducible dislocated or very unstable dislocated hips using the Pavlik harness. This approach is based on the theory of that dislocation favors dysplasia and that spontaneous correction occurs if the hip is reduced and stable. Very easily dislocated hips have been qualified as "major instability" if voluntary dislocation was easily achieved. In this case, it is very difficult to predict whether postnatal capsuloligamentary retraction will occur in the reduced or dislocated position.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retained for study 34 patients with 44 pathological hips; 15 hips presented reducible dislocation and 29 major instability. Treatment began early at 3.4 days of life on average and lasted 27.9 days.

RESULTS: Outcome was very good for 39 hips with stabilization and spontaneous correction of the acetabular dysplasia, good in four with late correction of the dysplasia, and a failure in one. There were no major complications, none of the patients presented post-reduction osteochondritis.

DISCUSSION: Two different entities can be distinguished: dislocation producing dysplasia which is symptomatic neonatally and would imply pathogenic in utero events, and primary dysplasia which can be asymptomatic at birth and for which correction is not spontaneous. If the hip is symptomatic at birth, treatment should begin immediately and be continued to confirmation that the reduced hip is stable, i.e. about three to five weeks on average. Simple dysplasia of dislocatable hips should be excluded from this strategy because of their favorable spontaneous course. Likewise for irreducible dislocated hips because of the higher risk of complications. Under these conditions, this therapeutic strategy is effective for the reduction, stability, and correction of dysplasia achieved in 97.7% of cases without increasing the rate of complications.