Growth of children with physiolysis of the hip.

Growth during adolescence was analyzed in 40 children with slipped capital femoral epiphysis using the Infancy Childhood Puberty growth model. The advantage of this model is that reference values for height can be adjusted for the individual age at pubertal maturation. In both sexes an above average height was found before the onset of the pubertal growth spurt. However, the pubertal gain in height was less than normal, and at maturity the heights were only slightly above the reference mean values. Most of the children had their first hip symptoms during the period of increasing gain in height at the initial stage of the pubertal growth spurt. Both boys and girls were overweight before puberty and remained so during puberty and at maturity.