CONGENITAL COXA VARA

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The words varus and valgus, it seems, originally had an identical meaning signifying steep or oblique. Later a differentiation was introduced, so that varus now means a deformity in which the extremity distal to it bends toward the midline. Valgus has the opposite significance. Isolated reports of coxa vara appear in the literature prior to the description given by Fiorani in 1881 of a group of fifteen patients whose disability he concluded was due to a change in the angle of the neck of the femur. It is difficult to judge in the present light just what cases were included, as he specifically stated that motion at the hips was normal in many of these cases. He mentioned the fact that several of the patients were children of consanguineous marriages. He suggested that improper food may have a bearing, which suggests that some of