Treatment for congenital unilateral hip dislocation with ipsilateral below-knee hemimelia: A case report

The Pavlik harness or overhead traction have been widely recognized as conservative treatment for congenital hip dislocation. To our knowledge, there are no case reports of a patient with congenital unilateral hip dislocation and ipsilateral below-knee hemimelia being treated using overhead traction. We performed overhead traction using a prosthetic socket and subsequent Lorenz casting in an eleven-month-old boy suffering from congenital right hip dislocation, ipsilateral femoral hypoplasia, and below-knee hemimelia. Redislocation had not occurred as of age three. Despite remnant acetabular deficiency, he obtained independent walking using a right below-knee prosthesis. This is the first report of conservative overhead traction using this specialized tool and subsequent immobilization for a patient with the aforementioned teratologic hip dislocation. This prosthetic socket has the potential to avoid complications associated with skeletal traction, as well as to help reassure parents.