The Ward includes a hospitalization ward, a day-hospital, and a medical clinic for specialist exams. It has 34 beds, distributed in 11 rooms as follows:  an isolation room, a room for 5 babies, a room with 4 cots, and eight rooms with 3 beds each. A physician is present in the department every day from 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. (Saturday 8.00 a.m. - 2 p.m.) and is available for interviews with relatives after rounds.

Clinical practice

The Ward of Pediatric Orthopedics and Traumatology of the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute provides medical-surgical treatment for musculoskeletal system disorders in growing patients. The Pediatric Orthopedics Ward not only provides treatment for the most common pediatric orthopedic disorders, but especially certain diseases of the locomotor apparatus:

• Congenital deformities: club foot, lower limb hypoplasia;
• Congenital hip dislocation;
• Axial deviation of the limbs;
• Limb length discrepancy;
• Flat foot;
• Congenital nonunion;
• Infantile cerebral palsy;
• Musculoskeletal disorders related to spina bifida;
• Arthrogryposis;
• Osteogenesis imperfecta;
• Benign tumours and pseudotumoral disorders.

For several years, a Day-Surgery service has been operating for simple operations with short hospital stay.  This mode of hospitalization is particularly used in the treatment of flatfoot and solitary cysts of the skeleton. Since 2001 a Day-Hospital has been operating for the conservative treatment of congenital club foot, subsequent follow-ups to the first treatment in the traumatic disease, multidisciplinary definition of cerebral motor disorders, and all regarding neuro-orthopedics (orthopedic surgeon, medical physiatrist and neurologist; technical orthopedic prosthetist, physiotherapist, treatment with botulin toxin).

The age limits for admission to the pediatric ward are 14 years old for traumatology and 16 years old for non-traumatic diseases.

Besides the surgical and ward activity, every day (from the Monday to Friday) an institutional out-patient service is available for first exams, post-emergency follow-up exams, and ward follow-ups.

Research activity

Research of the department focuses on congenital alterations of the growth plate called osteochondrodysplasia, that is to say alterations that are not confined to the cartilage, but by involving the process of enchondral ossification inevitably involve the bone tissue.

The study addresses the development of means and diagnostic procedures to make timely diagnoses, and the verification of treatment methods to develop protocols of prevention and treatment of skeletal deformities related to the diseases in question. Research project studying rare orthopedic diseases in growing age.

The research starts from an inspection of the historical series of Rizzoli, the development of methods and procedures for diagnosing the syndromes studied: computerized clinical dossier to be sent to the main treatment centres of rare diseases, to catalogue uniformly diseases whose rarity is often accompanied by difficult nosological placement. This is to build a telematic databank (continuously updated) which can be accessed by health workers outside the hospital. At the same time by the close examination of the international literature combined with the experience gained in the other countries, conservative and surgical methods of treatment are standardized.

School in hospital

Inside the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute there is a state nursery and primary school. The staff is composed of four teachers for the primary school, who work in the various departments of the hospital.  The state nursery has a staff consisting of three teachers in the Ward.