Use of the Pavlik Harness for Treatment of Congenital Dislocation of the Hip under 3 Months Old

Abstract

Use of the Pavlik harness for the treatment of congenital dislocation of the hip of a infant under three months old, has the following two objections,
1) functional reduction may not be obtained because active movement of limbs are still poorley developed,
2) the immature hip joint may be damaged, so as to cause growth disturbance of upper femoral epiphysis.
In spite of these objections, from our investigation of 82 joints which were treated in infant under three months old with a Pavlik harness, 68 of them (83%) were successfully reduced and femoral head of these reduced hip were mostly well developed, and fairly good results were obtained.