The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 61, Issue 1 52-55, Copyright © 1979 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Contracture of the hip secondary to fibrosis of the gluteus maximus muscle
YS Hang
Twenty-eight children were treated who had limited flexion of the hips and
various degrees of contracture of the abductor and external rotator muscles
because of fibrosis of the gluteus maximus muscle. Although the lesions
could be classified as those associated with poliomyelitis, infection of
the gluteus maximus muscle, and fibrosis of unknown etiology, all
forty-five hips had a typical restriction of motion such that an affected
hip could not be flexed in the usual sagittal plane, but had to be flexed
in abduction. Poliomyelitis may have been adjunctive to the causative
factor of the lesion in some cases but the probable primary etiology was
multiple intramuscular injections. Excellent correction of the hip
contracture was achieved in all patients by division of the fibrotic bands.