Perthes Disease - Paediatric CPC

For clinical advice, please telephone the relevant specialty service.

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network

• Lyell McEwin Hospital (08) 8182 9000

Southern Adelaide Local Health Network

• Flinders Medical Centre (08) 8204 5511

Women's and Children's Health Network

• Women’s and Children’s Hospital (08) 8161 7000

Category 1 (appointment clinically indicated within 30 days)

• nil

Category 2 (appointment clinically indicated within 90 days)

• confirmed or consideration of Perthes disease

Category 3 (appointment clinically indicated within 365 days)

• nil

Essential referral information

Completion required before first appointment to ensure patients are ready for care. Please indicate in the referral if the patient is unable to access mandatory tests or investigations as they incur a cost or are unavailable locally.

• clinical history
  
  • details of presenting condition including evolution and duration of symptoms
    
  • variable pain on activity – thigh, groin, knee pain
    
  • treatment prescribed, e.g. analgesics, physiotherapy
    
  • current and past medical history and medications
    
  • relevant family history of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH)
    
• physical examination
  
  • limp
    
  • hip irritability
    
  • decrease in hip range of motion
    
• investigations
  
  • x-ray: pelvis - anterior to posterior (AP) and frog leg lateral views

Clinical management advice

• Commonly present between 4 and 10 years of age
  
• Pain management: paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS)
  
• Continue weight bearing
  
• Avoid high impact activities

Consumer resources

• Women’s and Children’s Hospital – Perthes disease (PDF 192KB)
  
• The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network – Perthes disease
  
• Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne – Perthes disease (PDF 104KB)

Reason for request

• to establish a diagnosis
• for treatment or intervention
• for advice and management
• for specialist to take over management
• for a specified test/investigation the General Practitioner cannot order
• for other reason (e.g. rapidly accelerating disease progression)
• transfer of care from another tertiary service
• clinical judgement indicates a referral for specialist review is necessary.

Patient demographic details

• full name, including aliases
• date of birth
• residential and postal address
• telephone contact number/s – home, mobile and alternative
• Medicare number, where eligible
• name of the parent or caregiver, if appropriate
• preferred language and interpreter requirements
• identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander

Clinical modifiers

• impact on employment
• impact on education
• impact on home
• impact on activities of daily living
• impact on ability to care for others
• impact on personal frailty or safety
• identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander

Other relevant information

• Willingness to have surgery, where surgery is a likely intervention.
• Choice to be treated as a public or private patient.
• Compensable status, e.g. DVA, Work Cover, Motor Vehicle Insurance, etc.
• Relevant social history, including identifying if you feel your patient is from a vulnerable population, under guardianship/out-of-home care arrangements and/or requires a third party to receive correspondence on their behalf.
• Triage of a specialist outpatient referral is based on clinical decision making to allocate an appropriate urgency categorisation.
  
• Where appropriate and where available, the referral may be streamed to an associated public allied health and/or nursing service. Access to some specific services may include initial assessment and management by associated public allied health and/or nursing, which may either facilitate or negate the need to see the public medical specialist.
• A change in patient circumstance (such as condition deteriorating or pregnancy) may affect the urgency categorisation and should be communicated as soon as possible.
• All new referrals will be triaged by a consultant and appointment times scheduled according to clinical urgency.

Adolescents transitioning from paediatric to adult specialist services require a formal handover from paediatric specialist clinician to adult specialist clinician as well as a formal referral from the referring specialist to ensure initial transfer of care is completed.

The role of the referring clinician (e.g. General Practitioner, Nurse Practitioner) in this process is to provide support to patients as part of holistic care. All ongoing referrals to specialists can subsequently be provided by the referring clinician once the transfer of care has occurred.