My child was just diagnosed with hip dysplasia, and he his sixteen months old, what are the changes in lifestyle that might be expected based on this information?

A recent study out of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery looked at the long-term outcomes of infants with late-detected hip dislocation. For your child the outcome is better since he is younger than eighteen months that he will have a good result from the initial treatments. You can expect treatment to include a period of time in skin traction and a spica cast, and possibly an open surgery within about three years if the alignment doesn’t remain stable. This may alter his immediate abilities for activity, but working with a physical therapist may be advisable to minimize this effect.

This study did not completely address activity level of these patients through their lives. There was one functional questionnaire used called the Harris hip score, which asks very basic questions such as range of motion, ability to walk, use stairs, and sitting tolerance. And the mean sore on this test was in the excellent category. There is a likely hood of the need for a total hip replacement, however at the mean age of fifty-two only twenty six percent of hips in this study had been replaced.