Between the years 1919 and 1937, thirty-eight patients had forty-six operations at the New York Orthopaedic Dispensary and Hospital for the reconstruction or stabilization of a hip joint that had been damaged or destroyed by previous suppurative arthritis. The experience with these cases and the results that have been obtained are now reported After a careful review of the histories and roentgenograms, it is felt that all these persons had actually had suppurative arthritis.
The operations consisted of twenty reconstructions, four arthroplasties, seven shelf stabilizations and fifteen fusions, and they will be discussed in this order There were no operative deaths. One patient, a child, died six years later from spinal meningitis.
THE RECONSTRUCTIONS
Reconstructions numbered twenty and were performed on eighteen patients, who varied in age from 11/2 to 17 years and averaged 9. Two each had a second reconstruction on the same hip one year later. The