Field: Medicine › SurgeryType: No effect foundArea: developmental dysplasia of the hipTarget: Pavlik harness abduction bracing for stable dysplastic hipsStage: randomized trial
Hypothesis
Bracing infants' stable but sonographically dysplastic hips in a Pavlik harness would improve acetabular development compared with watchful surveillance.
What failed
In a multicentre trial randomising 104 infants aged 3–4 months, the Graf alpha angle at 12 weeks was essentially the same with the harness (60.5°) as with surveillance (60.0°, p = 0.30), and neither the acetabular index at 10 months nor walking age differed.
Broken assumption
Stable dysplastic infant hips need bracing to develop normally.
Why
Most of these hips matured normally on their own within twelve weeks, so bracing added nothing measurable; the authors recommend observation instead.
From the published paper: Pollet et al. Scientific Reports, 2020. ↗CC BY