Yusuke Kubo

This study investigated the risk factors for postoperative complications requiring revision surgery within 3 years after transtrochanteric rotational osteotomy (TRO) for osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). We reviewed 127 patients (147 hips) who underwent TRO (anterior or posterior rotational osteotomy) for ONFH between January 2002 and December 2014. Two patients were lost to follow-up, and five patients with progression of femoral head collapse requiring a salvage procedure such as total hip arthroplasty within 3 years after TRO were excluded. The better hip in patients treated bilaterally was also excluded (n = 20) to avoid duplication of patient demographics, leaving 120 hips (120 patients) for the analysis. We reviewed the medical records of each patient to screen for postoperative complications that required revision surgery within 3 years after surgery, recording the patient’s age, sex, body mass index, surgical side, condition of the contralateral hip, previous alcohol intake, previous alcohol abuse, previous corticosteroid use, perioperative corticosteroid use, smoking status, preoperative stage and type of ONFH, preoperative activity level, and preoperative and final follow-up Japanese Orthopaedic Association scores. Differences between cases with and without complications were analyzed. Eleven (9.2%) cases showed postoperative complications that required revision surgery. The most common complication was deep infection (n = 5), followed by nonunion of the greater trochanter (n = 3), nonunion of the intertrochanteric osteotomy site (n = 2), and femoral head fracture (n = 1). The multivariate analysis showed an independent association between previous alcohol abuse and postoperative complications (odds ratio, 13.5). A correlation might exist between alcohol abuse and complications following a TRO procedure.

Patient-reported scoring systems have recently been used after surgical procedures. The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate the patient-reported outcomes of femoral osteotomy and total hip arthroplasty (THA) for osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). Forty-two symptomatic ONFH patients with asymptomatic contralateral hip underwent either transtrochanteric anterior rotational osteotomy (ARO) or THA as a primary operation. Of these, 20 patients whose contralateral hips remained asymptomatic at the final follow-up (more than 1 year postoperatively) were recruited to participate in this study. Nine patients were treated with ARO (ARO group) and 11 patients were treated with THA (THA group). Both the Oxford hip score (OHS) and the short form 36 (SF-36) were evaluated preoperatively and at the final follow-up. The preoperative OHS was 29.1 ± 10.9 and 21.9 ± 9.6 points in the ARO and THA groups, which significantly improved to 38.4 ± 9.4 and 40.3 ± 5.1 points at the final follow-up, respectively. The preoperative physical component summary score was 30.8 ± 12.8 and 17.8 ± 14.5 points in the ARO group and THA groups, which significantly improved to 44.5 ± 10.6 and 43.3 ± 10.4 points at the final follow-up, respectively. The preoperative mental component summary score was 48.0 ± 8.5 and 48.6 ± 11.3 points in the ARO and THA groups, both of which remained unchanged at the final follow-up. The short-term patient-reported outcomes of this study suggested that both ARO and THA for ONFH resulted in significantly improved postoperative hip joint function.

Corticosteroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) often affects both femoral heads. Such bilateral ONFH cases are generally detected concurrently on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). On the other hand, in unilateral cases, it is rare that contralateral ONFH is subsequently detected. We herein report a case in which bilateral ONFH was detected in both femoral heads by repeated MRI examination at an interval of 6 weeks. A 34-year-old man with purpura nephritis was started on corticosteroid therapy with prednisolone at 30 mg/day. Eight months after the initiation of corticosteroid therapy, he complained of left hip pain with no antecedent triggering activity. MRI obtained 8.5 months after the initiation of corticosteroid therapy showed the findings of osteonecrosis of the left femoral head, while no abnormalities were detected in the right femoral head. On the second MRI obtained 10 months after the initiation of corticosteroid treatment, however, osteonecrosis of the right femoral head was newly detected without an increase of the corticosteroid dose. This case may indicate that corticosteroid-induced bilateral ONFH do not always develop at the same time.