Chondrolysis following slipped capital femoral epiphysis in Jamaica

We reviewed the cases of all patients with slipped capital femoral epiphysis at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Forty-seven hips in thirty-six Black patients were evaluated, and in 40 per cent of those hip chondrolysis developed. The appearance of roentgenographic changes of chondrolysis was predictable. There was a high percentage occuring within one year of diagnosis of slipped epihysis and within six months of closure of the proximal femoral growth plate. The persistent absence of motion in all planes following slipping of the capital femoral epiphysis was a constant finding in patients with chondolysis. This loss of motion can be diagnostic of impending chondrolysis and is usually present before the appearance of the roentgenographic changes. The microscopic changes suggest that the primary lesion is not necrosis of cartilage but a replacement of articular cartilage by pannus formation (Summary)

Slipped capital femoral epiphysis

Thirty-six patients representing forty-seven hips with slipped upper femoral epiphysis have been reviewed at the University Hospital of the West Indies. The incidence of avascular necrosis was very low with only two out of forty-seven hips having this complication. Chondrolysis occurred in eighteen of the patients for a very high 38 percent incidence. These findings suggest that the result of slipped capital femoral epiphysis in a predominantly Negro population are poor and that chondrolysis is the main reason for unsatisfactory results (AU)