Traumatic Hip Dislocation in Childhood

Although the number of published papers on traumatic hip disloca- tion in childhood is large, our actual current knowledge on this inju- ry in this age group is still full of obscure points and unsolved prob- lems. Luxation of the hip of traumatic origin in children is infrequent, and the small number of cases reported by authors and institutions, as well as the usually short follow-up in many cases, are responsible for the many doubts and questions, especially related to complications and outcome following the injury. Consequently the treatment, especially the postreduction management, has not been adequately defined. Dr. Antonio Barquet has made the great effort to analyze the ex- perience gained from 38 cases in Uruguay and to review more than 500 references related to the subject, covering more than 1400 cases. He began to study this topic in 1976. It was the subject of his postgraduate monograph in 1979, which was followed by a statisti- cal analysis of the major complication, i. e., avascular necrosis of the proximal femoral extremity, which was presented as his doctoral thesis in 1981. In addition, he has published numerous papers deal- ing with several aspects of traumatic hip dislocation in children.