Neonatal screening in Vancouver for congenital dislocation of the hip

Abstract

After 20 years' experience throughout the Western world the effectiveness of screening newborns for congenital dislocation of the hip remains controversial. Is the clinical test for hip instability (the Ortolani or "jump" sing) reliable? Are other equally important physical signs frequently missed by inexperienced examiners? Do some dislocations develop after the newborn period when no abnormality was identifiable during the first week of life? In Vancouver, screening for this condition was initiated in 1964. In the 5-year period 1967-1971 an orthopedic surgeon screened all the infants in the newborn nursery of one hospital, while orthopedic residents screened all those at another hospital. Their rates of neonatal and late (after the first month of lfe) diagnosis of congenital hip abnormalities were, respectively, 6 and 0.3/100 lives births for the surgeon and 5 and 0.8/1000 for the residents. In contrast, at 20 hospitals that did not have regular screenign the average rates were 1.2 and 1.4. Systematic screening the early treatment have great potential for reducing the need for immobilization and surgical treatment of infants who congenital dislocation of the hip is missed in the first month of life. it may also prevent the arthritic sequelae that in adult life afflict many patients whose treatment was begun after the newborn period.