The irritable hip

Jul 1, 2000 We welcome the interest shown by Bridges et al in our paper. 1 They state that a history and clinical examination are sufficient to select those children, presenting with atraumatic limp, who require further inpatient investigations They suggest that the routine screening of blood is unnecessary for such children who are discharged, and imply that we are subjecting children to needless venepuncture. [...]Aston 4 reported identification of neuroblastoma by detection of anaemia on investigation of the limping child. [...]we would advise caution in discharging children presenting to A&E departments with atraumatic limp based on history, clinical examination and imaging alone.