Slipped upper femoral epiphysis is a relatively common cause of hip pain in skeletally immature patients. The diagnosis is often made on plain films and isn't controversial.
If patients present with back or hip pain and the cause is not clear, further investigation (usually in the form of MRI) is required. In this case, the MRI demonstrated metaphyseal and physeal edema, CT confirmed evidence of physeal abnormality secondary to micro-movement and the orthopod pre-emtively operated to fix the physis.
Pre-slip in SUFE is defined as hip pain without radiographic abnormality subsequently found on other imaging 1. Fixing the pre-slip SUFE renders a significantly reduced risk of AVN than if the patient went on to have a full slipped femoral epiphysis.