De-Cast the Kids, Says Hopkins Study (Biloine Young @ OTW)
new study from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center challenges the longstanding practice of casting both legs in small children who have hip or thigh fractures. A study of 52 patients, ages two through six, found that the children healed just as well in single-leg casts as did those with both legs in casts and experienced far greater comfort and mobility. The study is published in the June 13 online issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
For a long time doctors thought that casting both legs and hips was the only way to assure proper healing and pelvic immobilization in wiggle-prone young children who seemed to be always in motion. The results of this study have changed all of that.
Senior investigator Paul Sponseller, M.D. M.B.A, director of pediatric orthopedics at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, said, “The single-leg approach not only appears to be just as effective and safe as double-leg casting in terms of healing, but also it makes the child's life much easier and requires less complicated daily care."
Older children who break a hip or thigh are candidates for surgical repair but children younger than six have do...
