Traumatic Obturator Hip Dislocation in a 9-Year-Old Boy

Traumatic hip dislocation is a rare but potentially devastating injury in a child. Although most hip dislocations are posterior, other variants have been described. An anterior dislocation in the pediatric population is uncommon and, to our knowledge, this is the first case of anterior-inferior (obturator) dislocation (ie, the femoral head lies in the obturator foramen), to be reported in the English-language literature.

In this article, we describe the case of a young boy with a traumatic obturator hip dislocation treated conservatively with closed reduction and followed closely for 1 year. The patient did not develop any sequelae throughout the follow-up year. This case report, along with a review of the literature, will help guide clinicians in the care of patients with this rare injury.