Abstract
Septic arthritis of the hip in infancy and early childhood can result in severe sequelae in the form of dislocation of the hip, and growth disturbance with limb-length discrepancy. This is a report of 4 cases with sequelae of the septic arthritis. They were treated at other medical centers, and referred to our hospital because of limp and limb-length discrepancy. There were 3 boys and 1 girl. All underwent femoral distraction lengthening with the Orthofix system after acetabuloplasty or femoral osteotomy in order to acquire adequate coverage of the femoral head. The age at limb-lengthening ranged from 9 to 15 years, with an average follow-up of 4 years. The overall lengthening achieved ranged from 2.3 to 4cm, with the healing index from 35.8 to 46.5 days/cm. All hips remained stable, but considerable precautions against articular cartilage damage on the hip joint during limb-lengthening seemed to be important.
