Femoral neck bone autograft for the core decompression treatment of the hip osteonecrosis: Surgical technique

Background: Hip joint preserving procedures delay the progression of the femoral head osteonecrosis. Non-vascularised autologous bone grafts have been used to fill the necrotic area and prevent the collapse of the femoral head. Harvesting and use of autologous femoral neck bone graft, minimizing the donor site complications and favoring the bone regeneration after core decompression. Methods: 17 patients in early stage of the femoral head osteonecrosis were operated, 12 males and 5 females with mean age of 45.3 years old. Were treated with core decompression and autograft harvested from the femoral neck. All the patients were evaluated with an MRI preoperatively, and at the follow up with X-rays of the hip and functional clinical scores. Results: We didn’t observe any complications both at the donor site and the hip at any stage of the follow up. All the patients returned to previous everyday activities, free of pain. There was a significant improvement regarding the functional scores. Conclusion: We present the surgical technique of using femoral neck bone autograft for the treatment of the femoral head osteonecrosis. The technique is simply and sufficient in most early and midterm cases adding an advantage to the minimal invasing and join preserving technique of core decompression