Contracture of the hip secondary to fibrosis of the gluteus maximus muscle

Abstract

Twenty-eight children were treated who had limited flexion of the hips and various degrees of contracture of the abductor and external rotator muscles because of fibrosis of the gluteus maximus muscle. Although the lesions could be classified as those associated with poliomyelitis, infection of the gluteus maximus muscle, and fibrosis of unknown etiology, all forty-five hips had a typical restriction of motion such that an affected hip could not be flexed in the usual sagittal plane, but had to be flexed in abduction. Poliomyelitis may have been adjunctive to the causative factor of the lesion in some cases but the probable primary etiology was multiple intramuscular injections. Excellent correction of the hip contracture was achieved in all patients by division of the fibrotic bands.