Electronic Letters to:

Children's Orthopaedics: J. G. B. MacLean and S. K. Reddy The contralateral slip: AN AVOIDABLE COMPLICATION AND INDICATION FOR PROPHYLACTIC PINNING IN SLIPPED UPPER FEMORAL EPIPHYSIS J Bone Joint Surg Br 2006; 88-B: 1497-1501 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

eLetters: Submit a response to this article

Electronic letters published:

Is prophylactic contralateral pinning in unilateral slipped upper femoral epiphysis justified?

Prof. Zoran S Vukasinovic, Cedomir Vucetic, Goran Cobeljic, Dusko Spasovski, Janko Samardzic   (9 November 2006)

Is prophylactic contralateral pinning in unilateral slipped upper femoral epiphysis justified? 9 November 2006
Prof. Zoran S Vukasinovic, Head of pediatric orthopaedic department Institute for Orthopaedic Surgery "Banjica", Cedomir Vucetic, Goran Cobeljic, Dusko Spasovski, Janko Samardzic Send letter to journal: Re: Is prophylactic contralateral pinning in unilateral slipped upper femoral epiphysis justified? zvukasin{at}beotel.yu Prof. Zoran S Vukasinovic, et al.	Sir, We read this paper with great interest and would like to make some comments. Until 1996, we rarely performed pinning for slipped upper femoral epiphysis. Since then we have performed it in 84 patients (87 hips; 81 unilateral cases, 3 bilateral cases), always with two Knowles pins (formerly) or two cannulated screws (latterly). No hip has been treated prophylactically. Only two patients developed the disease on the contralateral hip after primary surgery. The overall rate of avascular necrosis was 0.011%, and for chondrolysis it was 0.023%. In our experience, bearing in mind the percentage of bilateral cases, it is not justified and it is very aggressive and expensive to perform prophylactic pinning of the contralateral hip! Z.S. Vukasinovic, Head of Pediatric Orthopaedic Dept, C. Vucetic, G. Cobeljic, D. Spasovski, J. Samardzic, Institute for Orthopaedic Surgery "Banjica", Belgrade, Serbia. 1. Slavkovic N, Vukasinovic Z, Slavkovic S. Factors influencing the development of avascular necrosis in non-operative treatment of acute slipped capital femoral epiphysis. Srp Arh Celok Lek 135:1-2; in press. Jan-Feb 2007 (in Serbian). 2. Vukasinovic Z, Slavkovic N, Slavkovic S. Complications of slipped capital femoral epiphysis. Srp Arh Celok Lek 135:1-2; in press. Jane-Feb 2007 in Serbian).