Dyspraxia / hip dysplasia

[Thomas.Claire]

My 10year old daughter is under Orthopedics consultant at our local hospital. He has said my daughter has abduction of both hips to 50 degrees, internal rotation of the right hip to 80, external to 30. Left side she has abduction to 50 and internal rotation to 70. She also has a 5-130 degree range of movement of her knee and he right leg is shorter than her left. She also has flat feet and knocked knees.
When we was in clinic the consultant said my daughter would need an operation to fix these problems but the letter I’ve received says that as she is diagnosed with dyspraxia he wouldn’t look at doing surgery as it could make things worse.
I’m so confused on how dyspraxia can make these problems worse when the operation is done to fix the problem?
Anyone been in a similar situation?

I would definitely get a second opinion, or go back to the specialist with further questions/concerns/clarification.

My daughter was born with bi-lateral hip dysplasia and was treated with a pavlik harness, long story short, they said she was fine despite me taking her back to the gp and specialists over many many years, wouldn’t do anything. She’s now 20 and has just had her first hip reconstructive surgery, her second is hopefully due end of this year, depending on her recovery from this first one. We were told she could have surgery now as X-rays/scans show severe hip dysplasia which means there is an actual mechanical fault that can be corrected. If her pain was only due to hypermobility or similar then she couldn’t have surgery as there’s nothing physical to correct. I’m annoyed they didn’t do surgery when she was younger as I feel the recovery would have been so much easier. But, they also said you can have hip dysplasia with no pain etc so therefore surgery is not needed.

So, maybe there’s not an actual need yet for your dd to warrant surgery? But I would definitely go back and talk through all your concerns .. make a list of questions and stick to it. I literally went and said I’ve got x amount of questions, can I just work through them .. it ended up literally like a question and answer session rather than conversation back and forth 🤣🤣

Yeah think I'm going to as I don't see how the dr can say the only way to correct the problem after we've tried orthotics boots and insoles is to operate on the legs to then say he wouldn't operate because she's diagnosed with dyspraxia because it could make things worse is confusing!

Sorry you went through that with your daughter! I know exactly what you mean as my daughters been referred to physio 5 times and been discharged after every appointment because she wasn't understanding that she had to continue to walk like a penguin after the markers weren't on the floor for her to walk on. Physio said until she can grasp the concept she still has to walk like a penguin all the time we can't do nothing. I said the the physio that my daughter has flat feet and knocked knees which were diagnosed then she was around 3 years the physio looked at her legs and told me she doesn't have either of those any more nor does she have hypermobility. The orthopedic dr we see has told us she does have all knocked knees, flat feet and hypermobility so he's not sure what the physio was talking about!

It makes no sense at all that dyspraxia would stop her having the operation. I would definitely query that at least so you understand the reasoning.

I came here to say please be careful with physios. My daughter had hip dysplasia and femoral anteversion. She was referred to physios for years and got told all sorts of things. Mostly that she should force her legs to stand normally and do exercises to straighten them. Both these things were unhelpful, painful and possibly damaging. She was eventually diagnosed by an orthopedic consultant and has just had her second hip and femur operated on. She's only just recovering but very pleased to already be able to stand without pain.

I don't think a lot of physios really know what they are doing with conditions like hip dysplasia! My daughter also has femoral anteversion and physios always told us to do exercises like twisting her leg outwards to loosen up her ligaments etc which caused my daughter so much pain that I stopped doing them! Physios told me that she didn't have hypermobility, flat feet or knocked knees yet we was told when she was 3/4 she did! 2 years ago the physio told us she didn't this year the orthopedic consultant has told us she does! I came out the physio appointment being told they can grow out of these conditions so that's what I though she had done but she obviously hasn't as I doubt you can grow out of it then develop it again?!

She was also told she had hyper mobility then that she didn't.
I think there are some things you can grow out of like knock knees.
It seems to me that if the issue is structural then physio is not the answer and they shouldn't be diagnosing those things. DD ended up with complex scans to diagnose her properly.
Ultimately they did just watch and wait for years and it was only when she was struggling in her early twenties that she had the operations.
She's had some great physio after the operations to get strong again.

Yeah you can grow out of knocked knees. was just that they looked worse than when she was diagnosed at 3 at the age of 8 when she saw the physio and was told she didn't have them 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️
We was told when she was 3 that by 6 she should have outgrown the intoeing, knocked knees etc and if she hadn't we had to go back as they would consider surgery at that age. We went back when she was 6years as she was still having problems to be told that she should out grow it by the age of 8years and if not we had to go back because again they'd consider surgery... went back when she was 8 got told it was then 10years she should outgrow it by and again if not to go back. Now gone back say in the consultants room and he said as her problems have persisted and not go any better surgery would be the way to go... he asked me if we have any other diagnosis as he's seen on the noted my daughter is diagnosed with adhd and I said she's recently been diagnosed with dyspraxia and he was like oh well with a diagnosis of dyspraxia we wouldn't look to operate as it could cause the problems to worsen! I was like surgery is to correct the problem and to help so how will a dyspraxia diagnosis make things worse? He just kept saying that it could make things worse and not gave me a proper reason.

It sounds like the hip dysplasia was not treated at birth like it should have been, and they likely don't want to do such surgery to an older child.

But I'd definitely get a second opinion. Dyspraxia could be a diagnosis she was given because of issues with her hips, depending on presentation.

I'd get if they didn't want to do it because she's older but the consultant literally said that as we've tried orthotic shoes and insoles the next option is to operate. He then looked on her file see that she's got ADHD and asked if she's got any other diagnosis I said she's recently in the last month been diagnosed with dyspraxia and the dr then said he wouldn't operate because the operation could make the dyspraxia worse 🤷🏼‍♀️

The exact same conditions as my dd! She’s just had her first hip and femur done, she’s 5 months post op now. How long did your dd take to be fully back to ‘normal’ after her first op? They were going to do dd’s second op 12 months after her first, but I’m not sure she’ll be strong enough on her already operated side 🤔 She also has hypermobile EDS.

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