An unusual cause of hip pain in a child.

In this perplexing case, a child with signs of apparent hip pain was treated for a sewing needle embedded in the sole of the foot. The diagnosis of foreign body easily could have been missed, because the external signs were minimal and the clinical findings indicated hip disease. However, the child's extreme distress seemed inconsistent with the initial normal findings. Only reexamination and looking beyond the obvious led to the diagnosis.