Leg Length Change After Curved Periacetabular Osteotomy and Its Impact on the Clinical Outcomes

Curved periacetabular osteotomy (CPO) is one of the periacetabular osteotomies for the treatment of acetabular dysplasia. Several complications have been described after CPO, however, there have been no reports on the leg length change (LLC). This study aimed to investigate the LLC after CPO and its impact on the clinical outcomes.

This study was a retrospective review of 70 consecutive hips in 67 patients with symptomatic acetabular dysplasia who underwent CPO between March 2016 and April 2019. Preoperative and postoperative leg lengths were measured using anteroposterior radiographs, and the clinical outcomes were evaluated based on the Harris hip score (HHS) and Medical Outcomes Survey 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36).

The mean LLC (and standard deviation) after CPO was −0.08 ± 3.10 mm. The mean HHS significantly improved from 73.5 points to 91.9 points (P < .001). The physical component and role component scores of SF-36 significantly improved from 35.1 to 46.1 (P < .001) and from 39.5 to 47.0 (P < .001), respectively. No significant differences were found between the preoperative and postoperative mental component scores of SF-36. In addition, among 70 hips, 35 hips exhibited leg length elongation (0 to plus 6.82 mm) after CPO, whereas 35 hips exhibited leg length shortening (0 to minus 6.23 mm). No significant differences were found in HHS and SF-36 between the leg elongation group and leg shortening group.

The mean LLC after CPO was −0.08 ± 3.10 mm, and this change does not affect the postoperative clinical outcomes.