Hip dislocation in spastic cerebral palsy: long-term consequences.

We evaluated 38 noninstitutionalized patients with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy with 51 dislocated hips. Nine hips had been reduced. The mean follow-up was 18 years, with an average age of 26 years. At follow-up, four were ambulatory with aids. Patients who could walk had normal intelligence and a level pelvis. In patients with 18 unreduced unilateral hip dislocations, pelvic obliquity and scoliosis were present in 12. In seven patients with reduced unilateral hip dislocations, similar findings were present in only two patients. Half of the dislocated hips were painful. Based on these findings, we recommend reduction of unilateral dislocations. Bilateral dislocations may benefit from reduction if treatment is undertaken before significant adaptive deformity of the femoral head occurs.