Perthes' disease. A study of radiological features.

A study is presented of the radiographs of 68 patients with unilateral Perthe's diseasemtwo types of Perthe's disease are identified: 'fragmenting' and 'non-fragmenting'. The two radiological types of the disease showed no significant differences in the age at diagnosis, the duration of symptoms before diagnosis and the duration of the disease. However, the radiologically-measureable results at healing, in terms of the epiphyseal, acetabular, acetabulum-head and comprehensive quotients were all very significantly worse when fragmentation had developed.