My watch list
my.bionity.com  
Login  

Southwick angle



A Southwick angle is a radiographic angle used to measure the severity of a slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) on a radiograph. It was named after Wayne O. Southwick, a famous surgeon.

The angle is measured on a frog lateral view of the bilateral hips. It is measured by drawing a line perpendicular to a line connecting two points at the posterior and anterior tips of the epiphysis at the physis. A third line is drawn down the axis of femur. The angle between the perpendicular line and the femoral shaft line is the angle. The angle is measured bilaterally. The normal side is then subtracted from the slipped side. The number calculated determines the severity. Mild is classified by < 30o. Moderate is 30o-50o. Severe is >50o. 12o is the normal control value and can be used in the case of bilateral involvement.

References

  • Loder, R.; "Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis." American Family Physician 1998 57: 2135.
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Southwick_angle". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE