Plagiocephaly after Neonatal Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip at School Age

A Marita Valkama; Henri I Aarnivala; Koshi Sato; Virpi Harila; Tuomo Heikkinen; Pertti Pirttiniemi

doi:10.3390/jcm9010021

Plagiocephaly after Neonatal Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip at School Age

J Clin Med. 2019 Dec 19;9(1):21. doi: 10.3390/jcm9010021.

Authors

A Marita Valkama^{1

2

3}, Henri I Aarnivala^{1

2

3}, Koshi Sato^{3

4}, Virpi Harila^{3

4}, Tuomo Heikkinen^{3

4}, Pertti Pirttiniemi^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Children and Adolescents, Oulu University Hospital, 90029 Oulu, Finland.
² PEDEGO Research Center, University of Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland.
³ Medical Research Center Oulu, University of Oulu, 90014, Oulu, Finland.
⁴ Department of Oral Development and Orthodontics, Oulu University Hospital, 90014 Oulu, Finland.

Abstract

Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) may require early abduction treatment with infants sleeping on their back for the first few months of life. As sleeping on back is known to cause deformational plagiocephaly, we assessed school age children treated for dislocation or subluxation of the hip-joint in infancy. Plagiocephaly was analyzed by using cephalic index (CI) and oblique cranial length ratio (OCLR) as anthropometric measurements from 2D digital vertex view photographs. Six of the 58 (10.3%) DDH children and only one of the 62 (1.6%) control children had plagiocephaly (p = 0.041). Furthermore, cross bite was found in 14 (24.1%) of the DDH children and in 7 (10.3%) of the control children. Developmental dysplasia of the hip in infancy was associated with cranial asymmetries and malocclusions at school age. Preventive measures should be implemented.

Keywords: 2D-imaging; brachycephaly; cephalic index (CI); cross bite; developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH); oblique cranial length ratio (OCLR); plagiocephaly.