Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is a common congenital disorder in which a child’s upper thighbone is dislocated from the hip socket. The disorder can be present at birth or develop during a child’s first year of life. Plain radiography has long been the gold standard screening modality for this condition in six-month-old children, in spite of worries over exposing very young children to ionizing radiation. However, according to a new study findings, ultrasound provided good quality images with 100% diagnostic correlation to the X-rays in all patients. Ultrasound was shown to be an effective alternative imaging method instead of X-rays for DDH screening in five-to-seven-month-old children.

In new research presented by investigators from the Hospital For Special Surgery (New York, NY, USA) at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) held in San Francisco (CA, USA) on February 7-11, 35 five-to-seven-month-old children at high risk for DDH were screened with the conventional pelvis X-ray, as well as a bilateral nonstress-hip ultrasounds. Blinded orthopedic surgeons then assessed the radiographs and ultrasound scans for standard measure of hip dysplasia. Of the 35 children involved in the study, only one was diagnosed with dysplasia, and the diagnosis was made on both the ultrasound and X-ray.

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