TUESDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with cerebral palsy (CP) often exhibit transverse pelvic asymmetry, which is most prominent above the acetabulum and more frequent in patients with windswept hips, according to a study published online March 10 in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics.
Phebe S. Ko, from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues evaluated pelvic asymmetry in 27 pediatric patients (age 21 or younger) with scoliosis and severe CP to better understand skeletal deformity and its surgical correction. Patients underwent CT scans for spinal surgery, and their pelvic angles and transverse plane symmetry were assessed. Angles of the upper and lower ilium with respect to the sacrum, acetabular anteversion, and sacroiliac joint angles were measured in patients and compared with 20 age-matched control subjects.
The researchers found that CP patients had significantly more iliac angle asymmetry. Asymmetry of at least 10 degrees was seen in the upper ilium, the sacroiliac joint, and around the sciatic notch. None of the control subjects had asymmetry that was greater than 10 degrees. Patients with windswept hips had more asymmetrical upper iliac angles than those without windswept hips. In patients with windswept hips, the convex spine curve was ipsilateral to the more internally rotated ilium.
"Our study is the first to attempt to define explicitly the magnitude of transverse plane asymmetry in CP," the authors write. "Our findings may help increase the understanding of CP, and may aid in the choice and strategy of the pelvic-to-spine fixation."
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