Management of severe congenital femoral deficiency: Does surgical intervention enhance prosthetic function?
Peter Calder, Ahmed Elsheikh, George Cross and 4 others
PMID 38019004WHAT IT FOUND
No significant differences in prosthetic function or quality of life were found between patients with severe congenital femoral deficiency who had surgery and those who did not.
A small subgroup undergoing hip reconstruction showed better scores, but the study was too small to confirm this.
Key findings
01There was no significant difference in prosthetic function scores between patients who underwent surgery and those who did not.
02Patients who underwent the SUPERhip procedure recorded better prosthetic scores than other groups, though this was not statistically significant.
03Gait analysis showed that hip extension was often limited, with patients using compensatory knee flexion to increase stride length.
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
The study included only 26 patients, resulting in very small subgroups that made statistical analysis difficult. Data were collected at a single point in time, so there was no pre-surgery comparison to judge the effect of the intervention on individual patients. The patient group was heterogeneous, with varying ages, severities of deficiency, and types of surgery. Gait analysis was performed on only 7 patients, and markers were placed on prosthetics, which may have introduced error. The authors acknowledged that their interpretation of the trends may be biased due to the small numbers.
Declared interests
The authors disclosed no financial support and no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the SUPERhip procedure is proven to be superior. The study found no significant difference in outcomes between surgical and non-surgical groups, and the better scores in the SUPERhip subgroup were trends in a very small sample, not statistically confirmed results.