Three-dimensional characteristics of cartilaginous and bony components of dysplastic hips in children: three-dimensional computed tomography quantitative analysis.

A cartilage-viewing technique was developed to overcome the shortcoming of not seeing the cartilaginous components, believed to play more important role than the osseous components in children's hips, with computed tomography. This technique was applied to 25 dysplastic hips in children younger than 10 years to evaluate their global and local deficiencies. The findings helped us to understand more about their individual problems. To quantify the three-dimensional (3-D) parameters of acetabular anatomy and femoral head coverage, a measuring technique was developed based on digitization of the 3-D coordinates and fitting of every component of the hip. The improved images and the quantified parameters were expected to aid the planning, formulation, and even simulation of individualized surgical treatment for children with developmental dysplasia of the hip.