[Traumatic dislocation of the hip in childhood].

According to Ambroise Pare, “there is this danger in the dislocation of the hip, that either the bone cannot be put into the place again, at least unless with much trouble, or else, being put in, that it will presently fall out again.” These difficulties have been largely overcome, only to be replaced by the problem of avascular necrosis. Mason (1954) reported one case of traumatic dislocation of the hip in a child, and found eighty-eight cases reported during the previous thirty-two years. Nine of these children later developed avascular necrosis of the affected femoral head-an incidence of 10 per cent. Several of the cases had not been adequately followed up, and, as Choyce (1924) concluded: “Had the earlier cases been followed up, the results would have been found to be less ideal than was supposed.”