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slipped femoral epiphysis
Epidemiology:
- children/adolescents - age 10-14 years
- most often, it develops during periods of accelerated growth, shortly after the onset of puberty
- more 2-3 fold more common in males than females
Pathology:
- the head of the femur slips off in a backward direction due to weakness of the growth plate
Clinical manifestations:
- several weeks or months of hip pain or knee pain
- intermittent limp
- in some cases, inability to bear weight
- the affected leg is usually turned outward in comparison to the normal leg
- the affected leg may also appear to be shorter
- restricted range of motion of affected hip
- restricted hip flexion
- inability to fully rotate the hip inward
- guarding at extremes of range of motion
Complications:
- avascular osteonecrosis of femoral head
- chondrolysis
Management:
- orthopedic surgery
- fixing the femoral head with pins or screws
- traction (CPT)
Related
epiphysis
femur
General
skeletal deformity
developmental disorder
References
- OrthoInfo
Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00052
- Karkenny AJ, Tauberg BM, Otsuka NY.
Pediatric Hip Disorders: Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis and Legg-Calve-Perthes
Disease.
Pediatr Rev. 2018 Sep;39(9):454-463.
PMID: 30171056 Review.