News Update: Active monitoring works for newborns with mild hip dysplasia

Employing active sonographic surveillance in newborns with mild hip dysplasia yields results similar to those achieved with immediate splinting treatment, according to a new study.

In a randomized, blinded, controlled study published online ahead of print in Pediatrics, researchers assigned 128 newborns with mild hip dysplasia in 1 or both hips to either 6 weeks of immediate abduction splinting treatment with sonographic follow-up (n=64) or active sonographic surveillance alone (n=64). Patients were assessed at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year, and treatment was either continued or discontinued (splinting group) or initiated or not initiated (active surveillance group) based on the sonographic inclination angle. At 1.5 months of age, 47% of patients in the active surveillance group received treatment. In both groups, the mean treatment duration was 12 weeks. At 1 year of age, the mean inclination angle was 24.2° in both groups (P=.82). A total of 38 patients treated with splinting and 40 patients treated with active surveillance had radiologically normal hips at 1 year of age.

Considering the reported prevalence of 1.3% for mild hip dysplasia, these results suggest that a strategy of active surveillance rather than immediate treatment could reduce the overall treatment rate by 0.6%.