SCFE Longitudinal International Prospective Registry

Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis (SCFE) is the most common disorder of the adolescent hip and diagnosis and treatment of SCFE remain areas of controversy and investigation. The current issues relating to diagnosis stem from an inability to diagnose the condition early on, resulting in increased morbidity. Once diagnosed, there are multiple different options for surgical treatment, including in-situ pinning, and the Modified Dunn procedure. Research is ongoing to determine the parameters that should be considered when selecting a procedure to ensure an ideal outcome. In particular, there is a focus on investigating which treatment method may result in lower incidence of avascular necrosis of the femoral head and femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), two significant long term concerns associated with SCFE. Despite myriad published studies on SCFE, very few are prospective and most lack sufficient patient numbers for clinically meaningful comparative analysis. The aim of this study is to develop a multi-center, international prospective registry of patients with SCFE to facilitate the comprehensive examination of clinical, functional and radiographic outcomes of each treatment, in relation to specific parameters determined prior to intervention. The general registry will serve as a hypothesis-generating database of prospectively collected outcomes. In turn, this will facilitate the development of targeted, hypothesis-testing randomized controlled trials and observational studies that can be housed within the larger registry.