Longitudinal relationship between hip displacement and hip function in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy: A scoping review.
Ailish Malone, Giorgia Tanner, Helen P French
PMID 39572923WHAT IT FOUND
The link between hip displacement and daily function in children with cerebral palsy remains unclear.
Most studies measure physical impairment rather than activity or participation, and surgical interventions obscure natural history. Clinicians cannot rely on current data to predict functional outcomes from hip structure alone.
Key findings
01Most included studies focused on impairment-level outcomes like range of motion and pain, with very little data on activity or participation.
02Findings on the relationship between hip displacement and function are inconsistent; some studies found correlations between radiological changes and range of motion, while others did not.
03The majority of evidence comes from intervention studies, particularly surgery, which limits understanding of natural history and pre-intervention function.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
High heterogeneity in study designs, populations, and outcome measures prevented formal evidence synthesis. Most studies were retrospective, limiting the quality and consistency of data. The requirement for radiological confirmation excluded studies that might have provided valuable functional data. Machine translation was used for some non-English studies, which may have introduced imprecision. Risk of bias was not assessed.
Declared interests
The review was funded by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of consistent correlation between hip displacement and function as evidence that hip surveillance is unnecessary. The review found that current studies fail to adequately measure activity and participation, so the true relationship may be obscured by poor outcome selection rather than being absent.