This article is part of the supplement: 5th International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities .

Oral presentation

Measurement of the hip joint range of motion in adolescent girls with idiopathic scoliosis

Tomasz Kotwicki, Agata Walczak and Andrzej Szulc

Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland

corresponding author email

from 5^th International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities
Athens, Greece. 3–5 April 2008

Scoliosis 2009, 4(Suppl 1):O8doi:10.1186/1748-7161-4-S1-O8

The electronic version of this abstract is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.scoliosisjournal.com/content/4/S1/O8

Published:

15 January 2009

© 2009 Kotwicki et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Background

Body asymmetries exist involving the pelvis and the lower limbs in patients with idiopathic scoliosis. They are suspected by some authors to have the causative role on the development of scoliosis.

Methods

Hip joint range of motion was studied in 158 adolescent girls, aged 14.2 ± 2.0 years, presenting idiopathic scoliosis of 43.0° ± 14.5° of Cobb angle and in 57 controls, sex and age matched. For the hip range of rotation the inclinometer was used in order to control the pelvis level.

Results

Compared to the controls, the patients with scoliosis revealed less frequent symmetry of the hip joint range of rotation (p = 0.0047), a significantly higher difference between the left and the right hip range of internal rotation (p = 0.0013), and a significantly greater static rotational offset of the pelvis, calculated from the mid-points of rotation, (p = 0.0092). No limitation of the hip joint range of motion was detected, but a transposition of the sector of motion, usually towards the internal rotation in one hip and the external rotation in the opposite hip. No relation between the asymmetry of the hip joint range of motion and the curve type, the Cobb angle, the angle of trunk rotation or the curve progression was demonstrated.

Conclusion

Asymmetrical range of motion of the hip joint was detected; however, most of asymmetries were expressed equally in the scoliotics and in the controls. The detected hip asymmetries were not related to the parameters describing the scoliotic deformity.

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