Dislocated Hip
Hip dislocation occurs when a hip’s ball joint (femur) pops out of its socket (acetabulum). A dislocated hip causes excruciating pain and incapacitation. Immediate care lowers the likelihood of long-term complications.
If your child needs surgery or casting, our Fracture Care Clinic opens every day and you do not need an appointment. Surgery rooms get scheduled every morning, so your child receives the care and attention they need right away.
Hip Dislocation Defined
When the ball joint in a hip falls out of its socket, it causes hip dislocation, a painful ailment. It typically results from a serious traumatic injury. A hip dislocation is a medical emergency. It causes severe pain and disables a leg until it is repaired. It can also injure the surrounding blood vessels, nerves, ligaments, and tissues. Hip dislocation can have long-term consequences if not treated promptly. Hip dislocation can happen as a result of hip dysplasia, which is a developmental condition in which a hip joint does not fit well in the socket. Developmental hip dislocation is another name for hip dysplasia. Hip dysplasia patients have shallow hip sockets that do not hold their joints as well as normal hips. They may also have loose muscles and ligaments in their hip, which allows them to displace their joint with less force than most of us.
Hip Subluxation (Partial Dislocation)?
Subluxation refers to the medical term for partial dislocation. It means that a ball joint has shifted partially, but not completely out of its socket. Subluxations can range from mild to severe. It is common in people who have hip dysplasia or have had a hip replacement. Injury is the most common cause of severe subluxation. More severe cases may appear to as painful and debilitating as a total dislocation, and may also require a professional reset.
If your child complains of severe pain or cannot walk without pain, pay attention to your child’s body and seek professional help. Hip wear and tear, in general, might result in a milder instance where the cartilage that helps seal a joint in its socket has deteriorated. It could happen all the time or only recurrently. A child might walk with a mild subluxation, and the hip may pop back into place with gentle stretching.
Does Hip Dislocation Cause Hip Pain?
Doctors believe that the hip continues as one of the most secure joints in the body. It takes a lot to dislocate a hip joint unless someone has a prosthetic hip or hip dysplasia. As previously written, a dislocated hip causes excruciating pain, and it usually occurs after a significant injury. However, if your child has a minor injury or his or her hip has been subjected to a lot of wear and tear, your child could have a subluxation. If your child’s hip snaps in the socket when moved, or if it’s difficult to bear weight on the leg, take note. Our orthopedic doctors who specialize in children can assist parents in determining the source of their child’s hip pain and recommend the appropriate treatment.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
What constitutes a dislocated hip in children, and how does it occur?
A dislocated hip in children occurs when the ball-shaped head of the femur (thigh bone) becomes forced out of the hip socket (acetabulum). This can happen due to a traumatic injury, such as a fall or a forceful blow to the hip. In newborns, it can also occur during childbirth if the hip becomes forced out of its socket. Dislocated hips can either appear as partial (subluxation) or complete (full dislocation).
What symptoms and signs indicate a dislocated hip in children?
Symptoms may include pain, swelling, and limited movement in the hip. The affected leg may appear shorter or turned outward, and the child may resist moving the hip due to pain. In infants, asymmetry of the thigh or buttock creases and a leg that seems to be shorter than the other appear as symptoms. However, in some cases, symptoms may not appear, especially in infants.
How do doctors diagnose and treat hip dislocation?
Diagnosis involves a thorough physical examination, medical history review, and imaging studies such as X-rays or an ultrasound. X-rays can help confirm the diagnosis and determine the type and severity of the dislocation. Treatment varies based on the age of the child and the severity of the dislocation. For newborns, early detection and treatment with methods like Pavlik harness, abduction braces, or closed reduction can often successfully relocate the hip. In older children, doctors may recommend surgery to realign the hip joint and stabilize it, often followed by a period of immobilization and rehabilitation.
For the best Hip Care for Children, see the doctors at Medical City Children’s Orthopedics and Spine Specialists
What Causes Hip Dislocation?
A traumatic injury normally causes injuries like a hip dislocation. Pushing a hip joint out of its socket normally requires a lot of force. As doctors, we see car accidents as the most typical cause. A severe fall, an injury sustained while playing sports, or an accident at work might potentially cause the dislocation too. If your child has developmental hip dislocation (hip dysplasia), dislocating a joint may require much less force. People who have received a hip replacement are also more likely to dislocate again during everyday activities.
What Does a Dislocated Hip Look Like?
Looking at the injury from the outside, you’ll notice that the leg is locked in place, rotated either inward or outward. Approximately 90% of the time, a hip joint is pushed backward out of its socket (posterior dislocation), causing the knee and foot to point inward. A knee and foot will point outward if the hip is pushed forward out of its socket (anterior dislocation). In addition, a rotated leg may appear shorter or longer than the other. You might notice that your child’s hip isn’t aligned, or you might notice swelling or discoloration at the hip.
What Indications and Symptoms Point to a Hip Dislocation?
- Severe pain.
- Muscular spasms
- Hip joint swelling or discoloration.
- Rotation of either the inside or outside leg
- Impossibility of moving a leg.
- Impossibility of bearing weight on a leg.
- Loss of sensation in a hip or foot
- The hip remains clearly out of place.
Hip Dislocation Risks
A displaced hip joint might require separate treatment if it damages adjacent nerves, blood vessels, or tissues. This damage can sometimes produce long-term consequences, such as the following:
- Nerve injury to the sciatic nerve, which travels from the lower back through the hip and down the leg. Compression of the nerve results in chronic pain, often known as sciatica. A sciatic nerve injury can impair the ability to flex a foot and toes.
- Damage to the femoral artery, which runs in front of the joint, can impair blood flow to the bone. When a blood supply is interrupted, the bone tissue begins to die and tiny fractures form, destroying the structural integrity of the bone. Osteonecrosis or avascular necrosis are the terms used to describe this.
- Damage to the cartilage that cushions the ball joint in its socket and the ring of cartilage that surrounds the joint is known as the labrum. This frequently results in arthritis and raises the likelihood of requiring a hip replacement later in life.
What Causes a Dislocated Hip?
Our pediatric orthopedic doctors typically just need to glance at a dislocated hip to make the diagnosis. They will, however, want to perform a full physical examination to rule out any other injuries. Before attempting to correct any fractures, they may order imaging tests such as X-rays or a CT scan to better see the position of the bones and screen for any fractures.
Dislocated Hip Treatment
Urgent care
Don’t try to move the hip if you think your child has suffered a dislocation. Take your child immediately to an Emergency Clinic. The injury is excruciatingly painful and the child should quickly see a doctor to avoid long-term harm. It’s only safe to conduct hip correction once other linked injuries have been detected, which involves training, medicine, and help. Upon examination, doctors may find that surgical intervention is needed to repair secondary damage. Correction becomes most effective when done a few hours after the incident.
Hip reduction
The emergency room doctors or our doctors will physically relocate the joint back into position to treat the dislocated hip. It is referred to as a decrease. External (“closed reduction”) repair is possible when there are no subsequent injuries. To repair hip joints, doctors must force the hip both out of alignment and back into alignment. To lessen discomfort and muscle spasms during the treatment, our doctors will likely suggest a mix of anesthetic and sedative medications. Sometimes the procedure is carried out while your child is sleeping.
Surgery
It is really important for parents to bring their children to us after the emergency room. If there are major secondary injuries, surgical procedures can fix blood vessels and nerves in the operating room. The preferred course of therapy for newborns who have experienced hip dislocation, particularly as a result of hip dysplasia, is surgery. Our surgeons can also stabilize the joint during surgery to avoid dislocation in the future. With newborns, this works 90% of the time.
How can I Prevent my Child from Dislocating a Hip?
Safety
Since hip dislocation typically comes from an accident, following general safety recommendations is the best way to prevent it. When driving you should always buckle your seat and your child’s. When your child is playing contact sports, you should always ensure that he or she is using the proper equipment and shoes.
Conditioning
Hip dislocations are likely to occur again if your child has already had one. You can preserve and grow your child’s hip joint simply by strengthening the tendons and muscles around it through regular exercise and physical therapy.
Hip Dysplasia Care
To avoid further harm, doctors should treat hip dysplasia in children while their bones are still developing.
How Long Does a Hip Dislocation Take to Heal
Even once a joint has been surgically made better, it may still take a hip two to three months to fully recover. Our doctor might advise minimizing hip motion for the first several weeks and then introducing physical therapy. Additionally, your child might require crutches for the first week or two to walk.
Dislocated Hip Recovery
Timely treatments can lead to a full recovery. After a high-force trauma causes a hip to dislocate, further injuries are common. If nerves and blood vessels become harmed and not treated within hours, there is a greater chance of long-term consequences. All hip dislocations damage the ligaments and muscles that keep a hip joint stable as well as the cartilage that protects the joint from slipping out of its socket. The more a joint becomes unstable, the longer the damage will remain untreated. Future dislocation injuries may potentially result from this, potentially. It will also, in roughly 50% of instances, result in the gradual onset of arthritis in a joint. Although replacement hips resulting from arthritis are getting better and better, it is really important that children get treated immediately when there are any hip problems.
Particulars Regarding Dislocated Hip
With a dislocated hip, take it seriously. Given the nature of the situation, immediate medical attention is necessary for both immediate alleviation and long-term rehabilitation. Even if your child does not have any further injuries, parents still need to get the dislocated hip fixed as soon as possible to get rid of the discomfort and get the hip back to normal. Your child will benefit from receiving high-quality medical treatment from us for decades into the future. Call us today to schedule an appointment for a routine examination if you believe a problem may exist.
Why call the Medical City Children’s Orthopedics and Spine Specialists
Many doctors consider Medical City Children’s Orthopedics and Spine Specialists, with offices in Arlington, Dallas, Flower Mound, Frisco, and McKinney, TX as one of the best children’s orthopedic practices in the World. The practice has earned an international and national reputation as it successfully treats children with a variety of musculoskeletal conditions.
The doctors provide individualized care to allow children to return as quickly as possible to an active life. To fulfill this strategy, we combine doctors, surgeons specialists, nurses, technicians, physical therapists, and sports medicine doctors with advanced facilities that harness the power of cutting-edge technology and techniques. We are able to accurately diagnose a variety of excruciating conditions. In addition, the doctors have the depth of experience to provide cutting-edge surgical treatments. The doctors treat children in state-of-the-art operating facilities. However, they also have a variety of efficient and comprehensive non-surgical treatments.
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Footnote:
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: Hip Dislocation
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