Morphometric analysis of the hip joint in fetuses and neonates.

Background. Information's about prenatal development of hip joint are necessary for full understanding of it's neonatal abnormalities.
Material and methods. Our research was carried out during autopsies on 43 cadavers of 20-40 week old fetuses and 7 cadavers of newborns which died before twelfth week. Observation of development of hip in the second half of the prenatal growth and the neonatal period was based on morphometric analysis.
Results and Conclusions. In the hips of 20 to 40 weeks old fetuses, 3 cases of dysplasia were found. Morphometric analysis of hips in this age group, showed very complex developmental processes. The most important of them seems to be the decreasing overlay of acetabulum over femoral head in the last few weeks before the birth. This physiological process is an result of the relative decrease in acetabulum depth and simultaneous faster increase of femoral head diameter in two last weeks of prenatal development.