Signs and symptoms
Usually, a SCFE causes groin pain, but it may cause pain in only the thigh or knee, because the pain may be referred along the distribution of the obturator nerve. The pain may occur on both sides of the body (bilaterally), as up to 40 percent of cases involve slippage on both sides. In cases of bilateral SCFEs, they typically occur within one year of each other. About 20 percent of all cases include a SCFE on both sides at the time of presentation.Signs of a SCFE include a waddling gait, decreased range of motion. Often the range of motion in the hip is restricted in internal rotation, abduction, and flexion. A person with a SCFE may prefer to hold their hip in flexion and external rotation. Complications
Failure to treat a SCFE may lead to: death of bone tissue in the femoral head (avascular necrosis), degenerative hip disease (hip osteoarthritis), gait abnormalities and chronic pain. SCFE is associated with a greater risk of arthritis of the hip joint later in life. 17–47 percent of acute cases of SCFE lead to the death of bone tissue (osteonecrosis) effects. Cause
In general, SCFE is caused by increased force applied across the epiphysis, or a decrease in the resistance within the physis to shearing. Obesity is the by far the most significant risk factor. A study in Scotland looked at the weight of 600,000 infants, and followed them up to see who got SCFE.
This study identified that obese children had an almost twenty times greater risk than thin children, with a dose-response- so the greater the weight of the child, the greater the risk of SCFE. In 65 percent of cases of SCFE, the person is over the 95th percentile for weight. Endocrine diseases may also contribute (though are far less of a risk than obesity), such as hypothyroidism, hypopituitarism, and renal osteodystrophy.Sometimes no single cause accounts for SCFE, and several factors play a role in the development of a SCFE i.e. both mechanical and endocrine (hormone-related) factors. Skeletal changes may also make someone at risk of SCFE, including femoral or acetabular retroversion, those these may simply be chronic skeletal manifestations of childhood obesity. Pathophysiology
SCFE is a Salter-Harris type 1 fracture through the proximal femoral physis. Stress around the hip causes a shear force to be applied at the growth plate. While trauma has a role in the manifestation of the fracture, an intrinsic weakness in the physeal cartilage also is present. The almost exclusive incidence of SCFE during the adolescent growth spurt indicates a hormonal role. Obesity is another key predisposing factor in the development of SCFE.The fracture occurs at the hypertrophic zone of the physeal cartilage. Stress on the hip causes the epiphysis to move posteriorly and medially. By convention, position and alignment in SCFE is described by referring to the relationship of the proximal fragment (capital femoral epiphysis) to the normal distal fragment (femoral neck).