Legg-calvé-perthes disease: Treatments

Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease is a challenging condition to treat. A wide age, variability in the stage of presentation, and the severity of disease, both clinically and radiographically, are diverse making it difficult to apply a standard algorithm to an individual patient who presents to the office. Further complicating this, surgeons often disagree on the treatment for specific patients. Despite all of this, however, there is some evidence to help direct the treatment of LCPD. Current research concerning the biology of the disease and the potential for new treatments is also promising. Even though there is no resounding consensus of the best treatment of LCPD, there is an agreement on the primary goal of treatment – to maintain femoral head sphericity or minimize further deformity if already present. Femoral head deformity while tolerated in the young patient leads to pain, arthritis, and dysfunction in adulthood [1, 2].