Blade plate versus locking plate fixation of proximal femoral varus osteotomy in children with cerebral palsy

The hip is commonly affected in children with cerebral palsy (CP), requiring proximal femoral varus derotational osteotomies. Novel locking plates afford a popular alternative to traditional blade plates. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of blade plate versus locking plate fixation in children with CP undergoing proximal femoral osteotomy. We conducted a retrospective review of patients who underwent proximal femoral osteotomy over an 8-year period. Incidence of healing, failure of the procedure, and loss of varus correction were compared between the two groups (blade plate vs. locking plate). Independent samples t-tests and Chi-square analysis were employed to compare differences between continuous and categorical variables, respectively. A total of 268 hips [137 right (51.1%)] met inclusion criteria. Ninety-eight hips (36.6%) were fixed with blade plates [170 (63.4%) locking plates]. Although those in the blade plate cohort were more likely to achieve complete radiographic healing by 6 weeks postoperatively (41.09% vs. 18.84%; P < 0.050), there was no significant difference (P > 0.050) between the two groups for healing at 3, 6, and 12 months (P > 0.050). There was no significant difference between the two cohorts regarding the number of patients experiencing migration percentage at least 50% at 6 (3.06% vs. 3.53%) and 12 (3.06% vs. 5.88%) months (P > 0.050) or in those undergoing revision surgery at 12 (5.33% vs. 1.18%) and 24 (2.04% vs. 1.76%) months (P > 0.050). The findings of this retrospective study show similar outcomes between blade plate and proximal femoral locking plates in proximal femoral varus osteotomy in children with CP.