Echography of the hip in the newborn. 1507 cases

The authors report the data relative to 1507 infants studied with clinical and US examination, in the neonatal period, in order to exclude hip dysplasia or dislocation. US examination was carried out according to Graf's technique and the newborns were classified according to US hip type, to clinical examination and to possible risk factors. The patients were included in a protocol including orthopedic and US controls. Seventeen treated infants were considered as pathologic. Ten of them had IIc or D hips at birth; the other 7, with IIa hips at birth, presented a X-ray pathologic hip after the 4th month of life. At about one year of age all infants could normally walk, except for one who was being treated with harness. No statistically significant differences were observed between the number of pathologic infants in the risk group (1.7%) and that in the no-risk group (0.8%). Clinical examination of the newborn has low sensitivity in detecting pathologic hips. On the basis of their results, the authors believe US examination of the newborn to be a valuable screening method to diagnose hip dysplasia/dislocation. Moreover, Graf's morphologic method is the best one for US screening of the hip in the neonatal period.