Arthroscopy of 15 hip joints in 15 children were performed during the past 2 years. Of these, 13 hips were examined just prior to definitive surgery for evaluation of pathological changes, such as a hypertrophic ligamentum teres in manually unreducible congenital dislocation, a torn acetabular labrum or degeneration of articular cartilage in hip dysplasia and deformity of the femoral head in perthes' disease. Arthroscopic findings were useful for diagnosis, understanding pathology, and planning subsequent treatment. Two patients with residual subluxation after closed reduction of congenital hip dislocation were treated by a new method, “arthroscopic reduction”, in which intracapsular obstacles such as the ligamentum teres and fibrofatty tissue were completely resected arthroscopically. Short-term results of this method showed concentric reduction without coxa magna.
