Whatever the stage of the disease, recovery is a slow process, and even in early and mild cases it seldom takes place in less than one or two years, and is liable to be attended with some impairment of function. During the process of cure, complications are liable to occur, and after apparent recovery relapses are not uncommon. When arrested during the initial stage, recovery may be complete; but when there has been destruction of the articular surfaces, there is apt to be ankylosis of the joint and shortening of the limb. In cases which terminate fatally, death usually results from meningeal, pulmonary, or general tuberculosis, or from pyogenic complications and waxy degeneration. #Treatment.#--A large proportion of cases recover under conservative treatment, and the functional results are so much better than those following operative interference that unless there are special indications to the contrary, conservative measures should always be adopted in the first instance. _Conservative Treatment._--The first essential is to take the weight off the limb and secure its fixation in the attitude of almost complete extension and moderate abduction. When the symptoms are well marked, the child is kept in bed and the limb is extended with a weight and pulley. _Extension by Weight and Pulley_ (Fig. 116).--The weight employed varies from one to four pounds in children, to ten or more pounds in adolescents and adults, and must be adjusted to meet the requirements of each case. If pain returns after having been relieved, it is due to stretching of the ligaments, and the weight should be diminished or removed for a time. If there is deformity, the line of traction should be in the axis of the displaced limb until the deformity is got rid of. The extension should be continued until pain, tenderness, and muscular contraction have disappeared, and the limb has been brought into the desired attitude. [Illustration: FIG. 116.--Extension by adhesive plaster and Weight and Pulley.] In restless children, in addition to the extension, a long splint is applied on the sound side and a sand-bag on the affected one; or, better still, a double long splint and cross-bar, the long splint on the affected side being furnished with a hinge opposite the hip to permit of varying the degree of abduction (Fig. 117). [Illustration: FIG. 117.--Stiles' Double Long Splint to admit of abduction of diseased limb.] When the deformed attitude does not yield rapidly to extension, it should be corrected under an anæsthetic, and if the adductor tendons and fasciæ are so contracted that this is difficult, they should be forcibly stretched or divided.