Dega Pelvic Osteotomy in the Management of Developmental Dislocation of Hips in Older Children

We present our experience with Dega or incomplete transilial pelvic osteotomy in 22 dislocated hips due to Developmental Hip Dislocations (DDH) in 20 patients (2 bilateral).The patients who ranged between 4 and 10 years of age, presented to us at Indraprastha Hospitals between 2002 and 2006. Majority, especially the older patients, had been operated elsewhere earlier without success. All hips were subjected to open reduction with adductor tenotomy, femoral shortening and varus derotation osteotomy and Dega pelvic osteotomy. The hips were assessed by a combination of Severin's classification and clinical picture (pain, joint motion and any leg-length discrepancy). We had 12 good, 7 fair and 1 poor results at the end of at least 2 years of follow-up.Dega pelvic osteotomy is a very useful pelvic procedure in developmental hip dislocations in this age group, which imparts good all around stability to the femoral head by an adequate coverage. It also does not necessitate any internal fixation of the graft which is inherently very stable.