ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Pavlik harness in the treatment of developmentally dislocated hips: results of Japanese multicenter studies in 1994 and 2008

The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background It has already been more than 50 years since the Pavlik harness was introduced in Japan, and today the Pavlik harness is widely recognized as the standard initial treatment modality for developmental dysplasia of the hip. We performed a multicenter nationwide questionnaire study concerning the results of Pavlik harness treatment twice in 1994 and 2008. Methods In 1994 and in 2008, we sent questionnaires to 12 institutes in Japan specializing mainly in pediatric orthopedics. We compare the results of these two studies and discuss differences in reduction rates, incidence of avascular necrosis in the femoral epiphysis and the per-centage of joints with acceptable morphology (Severi