When performing an assessment of the hips on an infant, you would expect a positive Ortolani sign to:

• A. Create a palpable clicking sensation
• B. Dislocate the femoral head of an unstable hip joint
• C. Reduce a dislocated knee
• D. Reduce a dislocated femoral head

Answer: (D)

The Ortolani sign shows that a hip which is dislocated can be brought back into the socket. When you gently abduct the infant’s hips with light pressure on the femoral head, a positive sign is felt (and sometimes heard) as the femoral head relocates into the acetabulum—the classic “clunk” of reduction. This means the hip was dislocated but reducible. It’s the opposite of dislocating the hip; that other maneuver describes inflicting a dislocation on an unstable hip, and it’s not what Ortolani detects. It isn’t about reducing the knee or any other joint.