Slipped capital femoral epiphysis in southern Sweden. Long-term result with closed reduction and hip plaster spica.

Seventy-two patients treated with closed reduction and hip spica for slipped capital femoral epiphysis (physiolysis colli femoris; PCF) were evaluated by questionnaire 25 to 66 years after primary treatment. Fifty-seven cases were examined with the use of clinical and radiographic methods. Pain and restricted hip function were obvious in most patients. In 25 of 72, an operation had been done in adult life for coxarthrosis. In a previously investigated group of PCF patients not actively treated, only two of 49 had had surgical treatment of coxarthrosis. Thus the results of closed reduction and hip spica are unfavorable, compared with those of nontreated cases. The results suggest a harmful influence of both reduction and hip spica.