The assessment of contact stress in the hip joint after operative treatment for severe slipped capital femoral epiphysis

We determined contact stress on the articular surface of the hip joint in a group of patients who underwent operative treatment fur severe slipped cap ital femoral epiphysis. Two different procedures were considered: the modif ied osteotomy of Dunn-Fish and the osteotomy of Imhauser. In order to deter mine the stress distribution, a three-dimensional mathematical model was us ed taking into account the geometrical parameters of the pelvis and hip, wh ich were measured from standard antero-posterior radiographs. We found that the Dunn-Fish procedure produced lower peak stress than the Imhauser proce dure.