My son is nearly 9 and was diagnosed last October. He had a shelf procedure in January. We were told at the time that it may help but doesn't always. They basically took a piece of bone from his side and used it to create a curved shelf above where the hip bone would sit. The hope was that it would stabilise the hip and they are hoping it will help mould the femoral head back into the correct shape as it grows back. He was in hospital for around 4 or 5 days afterwards on traction. It was quite painful at first but they got him up walking on crutches on around day 4 and he became mobile very quickly. He was walking unaided by the end of the second week and after a 6 week check was allowed to resume normal activities. He initially had more movement in his hip, although this seems to have reduced and he is going to have physio. He gets less pain than he used to. His bone has mostly regrown but the femoral head is still flat so it is just a case of watching and waiting. You should be able to decide whether or not to have the operation. I hope this helps.
Many thanks for your reply which was very helpful. We had an appointment on the 24th with our new paediatric orthopaedic consultant, she has been highly reccommended to us and is extremely nice. She said if we were going to have the shelf procedure done it should have been done back in April just after diagnosis but as we have only just been transferred to her it is not really an option. However she says she would like to perform an xray called an Arthrogram. She says she needs him to be asleep while she performs this xray so we have not actually avioded him going to theatre. We have not yet told him the full extent of his next hospital visit as he is a worrier, we'll leave that til a couple of days before he goes in. I do not know how he will cope with this news and I can see some 'bribery' looming! How did your son cope with the knowledge he was going into hospital?
My 9 Year old son has been recommneded to have the shelf procedure on the 19th December although i'm unsure how necessary this is and what the recovery rates are like?
Can anyone offer any advice who has been through this at all as I'm really concerned about making this process the best and the least painful where possible. Help!!
Osteotomy just means cutting the bone, so there are many types of osteotomy, in fact the shelf procedure used to be called a Salter's Osteotomy. The help procedure is very common and has a good success rate, it's very early days yet, is he using a walking frame or fully weight bearing?
shelf not help.. predictive text is a nuisance!
Thank you very much for your reply. I actually should've said 'other osteotomy' because as you mentioned shelf procedure is also osteotomy. It was actually called shelf osteotomy on the operation consent form. The consultant explained that the type of shelf procedure that my son had was a Staheli one. My son, Felix was using a frame for the first 1-2 weeks. We were mainly at home during that time so there was no real walking, he was also crawling around the house! Two weeks after the operation he went back to school (I take him by car). I must say that although he complains about pain he still wants to do things e.g. go to play park after school and kind of runs about with other boys. His class went for a trip last Thursday and he wanted to go so much that I allowed him to go and he was on his feet for most of the day. I'm thinking that he is maybe overdoing his leg but it is just so difficult to stop him. The consultant said only: no running, jumping and sport, and let him walk as much as he feels it's ok for him, because he believes 'there needs to balance between how we manage the condition and patients quality of life'... I still don't really understand the disease, and it seems nobody fully understands it and it's difficult.
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