The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical course of steroid induced osteonecrosis of the humeral head, and to investigate the relationship between radiological stage, pain, and range of motion (ROM) .
Nine patients (16 shoulders) were examined directly at our out-patient clinic, with an average follow-up period of 4.2 years. There were 2 men and 7 women, with an average age of 42 years at the first visit. Correlation between radiological stage and both pain and ROM of the shoulder was evaluated with Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.
At the first examination, 9 of 16 shoulders were evaluated as radiological Stage III or IV, and only 7 as II. During follow-up, the stage advanced from Stage III to IV in 2 of 5 shoulders, but no advance-ment from Stage II to III was observed. Thus, the radiological stage did not progress in a time-dependent manner. A positive correlation was found between radiological stage and pain grade (p<0.0001), and between that and limitation of active movement (p=0.0064) .
