Slipped capital femoral epiphysis in southern Sweden. Long-term result with no treatment or symptomatic primary treatment.

Forty-nine cases of slipped capital femoral epiphysis or physiolysis colli femoris (PCF) without primary treatment were evaluated 20-60 years after diagnosis by questionnaire and in 44 cases by clinical and radiographic reexamination. The cases represent PCF cases without primary treatment from three different orthopedic centers from 1910 to 1960. Only a few had restrictions in working capacity or social life. Two of these 49 cases have required surgery because of secondary arthrosis, far fewer than were found in a comparable group of cases treated with closed reduction and hip spica.