Abstract
Aseptic necrosis of the femoral head is caused by a circulatory disorder in the feeding artery. This report investigates the morphological abnormality in the vessel that causes the disorder. We studied 28 hip joints of 21 males and 7 females (avg. age 47 years; range 27 to 66) that had been resected during total hip arthroplasty. Of the 28, 6 hips were Stage 3A, 16 Stage 3B, and 6 Stage 4. We investigated four areas: the band lesion, the distal-lateral part close to the band lesion, the proximal-lateral part close to the band lesion, and the normal part of each femoral head. The vessel number was greater in the band lesion and the distal-lateral part than in the normal part and the proximal-lateral part. This fact confirms that the ingression of reparative vessels occurs at the lateral part in the head following osteonecrosis. The diameter of the vessels in the band lesion and in the distal-lateral part was significantly less in Stage 4 than in Stage 3. This result indicates that the load stress delays the reparative vessel ingression compared to the interstitial fibrosis during the delay.
