Open repair and arthroscopic follow-up of severely delaminated femoral head cartilage associated with traumatic obturator fracture-dislocation of the hip.

This article describes an unusual case of a young adult with traumatic obturator fracture-dislocation of the hip, involving a large femoral head fragment and severe delamination of articular cartilage. The dislocation was irreducible by closed reduction because of interposing soft tissues, including the rectus femoris and iliopsoas muscles, and torn joint capsules, and therefore, open reduction was performed using an anterolateral approach in the lateral decubitus position. The large femoral head fragment was released from the ligamentum teres and fixed to the dislocated femoral head with headless screws. The severely delaminated femoral head cartilage was repaired with suture anchors and absorbable sutures. The patient was kept nonweight bearing for 6 weeks postoperatively, and was then allowed to resume full weight bearing gradually. He returned to normal activities of daily living at 14 weeks. At 9 months postoperatively, arthroscopic examination showed complete healing of the fracture and cartilage lesions, and at 12-month follow-up, there was no clinical or radiographic evidence of arthritis or osteonecrosis. The patient had no pain or limp, and achieved an excellent result according to Epstein's clinical evaluation criteria. To our knowledge, no previous report exists on the arthroscopic follow-up of a repaired femoral head cartilage in patients with obturator fracture-dislocation of the hip along with a large femoral head fragment and severe delamination of articular cartilage.