This pathology encompasses a wide spectrum of presentations and severity. It is generically characterized by acetabular dysplasia, dysplasia of the proximal part of the femur (head, neck and trochanteric region) and ligamentous laxity, which may appear alone or together. The term dysplasia means “anomaly in its formation”, i.e. we are talking about a pathology that appears at early ages when the skeleton is still in formation and growing Acetabular dysplasia is characterised by the absence of a cavity to receive the head of the femur, the acetabulum is flat and without acetabular roof. In the femoral case, by a valgus and anteverted thigh (i.e. changes in the shape and position of the femoral neck, femoral head and trochanter).
Dysplastic Hip Disease (DDH)
Neonatal / newborn, children and adolescents, young adults, adults
Hip dysplasia can occur for a number of reasons, and it is not uncommon for it to go unnoticed throughout adolescence, until adulthood, when patients experience hip pain.
All these alterations present themselves with varying degrees of severity and can lead to instability, subluxation (to varying degrees) or dislocation of the hip (dislocated hip), the latter being either reducible or irreducible (it can be put “back in place” or not). As regards presentation, hip dysplasia can be observed, in a general and more understandable way, in 4 ways: neonatal/newborn (normally at neonatal screening and by instability/ clicks when mobilizing the hips); children and adolescents (normally by alterations in gait and sometimes pain); young adults (normally by instability and pain); adults (normally by early arthrosis of the hip).
Each of these forms of presentation and according to the severity of the dysplasia have different forms of treatment that can range from correction with casts and orthotics, treatment of joint injuries, pelvic and femoral osteotomies to the replacement of the joint with a total prosthesis. Hip dysplasia is a developmental change in the shape of the hip, so if not treated early it can lead to the early development of hip arthrosis.
