[Incidence and start of inpatient treatment of pediatric hip dislocations in West Germany].

A national report of hospitalized children with cdh (up to the 6th year of age) (treated in 1983) is presented. 196 (63.1%) of all university hospitals and orthopaedic departments took part in this statistic. The number of all collected children was 1172,888 of them had a hip dislocation. Hospital treatment of children with a dislocated hip started on the average in the age of 9 months, that means much to late. Only 4.1% of the children showed neurological symptoms. The patents are reported in detail. The presented data lead to the conclusion, that the actually performed legal examination of children is insufficient for early detection of cdh. A general orthopaedic clinical and ultrasound examination in the first week of life should be introduced.