The Orthopaedic Management of Brain-Injured Children

¹ From the Cerebral Palsy and Children's Reconstructive Service, the Pediatric Service, the Kinesiology Service, and the Surgical Services, Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, Downey, and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles

This survey emphasizes the important role the orthopaedic surgeon plays in the treatment of brain-damaged children. In one institution in ten years, 122 brain-damaged children were admitted and 112 were evaluated: 21 per cent walked in the first year after injury, and 83 per cent walked at the time of final evaluation; 68 per cent of the patients had joint deformities on admission, and 8 per cent had joint deformities at discharge. Scoliosis occurred in four patients, limb-length inequalities in three, and ectopic ossification in six. The problems of management of a total of sixty-nine fractures were described. Internal fixation was necessary in two of the fractured femora and would have been advisable in a third.

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