Investigation of the relationship between femoral neck-shaft angle, age, and sex in developing children.

Abstract

Femoral neck-shaft angle (NSA) is a standard measurement for identifying hip pathology. Prior normative investigations relied on single radiographs from various children and lacked serial radiographs from the same individuals. Existing reference values do not explicitly differentiate by sex. In addition, they overlook the variability of this measurement in younger children. This study uses consecutive serial images to explore yearly changes and enhance our understanding of established patterns in femoral NSA adjustments. A total of 870 serial anteroposterior left hip radiographs from the Bolton-Brush collection were included in this study, representing 215 subjects ranging in age from 3 to 16 years. The NSA was measured as the angle between the femoral neck axis and the femoral shaft axis. A mixed model analysis revealed a significant negative association between NSA and age (P < 0.001), indicating that NSA decreases as children grow older. No significant correlation was observed between sex and NSA (P = 0.61). Pairwise comparisons of NSA between sequential ages did not show statistically significant differences after age 8 years.