Indication for weight relief and containment in the treatment of perthes' disease.

Fifty-four cases of Perthes' disease each suffering from total involvement of the femoral head were investigated to establish the relative merits of total weight relief and containment in management. It was found that using Catterall's criteria, once the femoral head is "at risk", containment is the only treatment of value; but when the head is "not at risk" a combination of containment and total weight relief produces a near perfect result in every case.