The Importance of The Widened Teardrop Distance in Adult Patients

Abstract

In adults, anteroposterior pelvic roentgenograms can help to the assessment of hip joint effusions by measuring the pelvic "teardrop" distances. The "teardrop" distances of 20 healthy adults and 11 adults with unilateral hip effusion were measured and the relation between the pelvic teardrop distance and hip effusion was examined. In all of the patients with hip effusions, the differences between the teardrop distances of the symptomatic sides and normal sides were 1 mm or more. In healthy adults, the differences between the measurements of the teardrop distances of both sides were less than 1 mm or mostly no such difference was encountered. In this article, we emphasized the importance of the widened teardrop distance measurement in the diagnosis of hip effusion in the patients with symptomatic hips.