Local Cancellous Bone Grafting for Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head

Objective. This study reports a novel local bone graft technique for the treatment of osteonecrosis of femoral head (ONFH). Materials and methods. From 1998 to 2005, a procedure using local bone grafting was performed for the treatment of ONFH in 11 patients. The local bone grafts were obtained from the intertrochanteric region and then impacted into the necrotic lesion. A wire coil was inserted into the remaining space after the grafting. Results. At a mean follow-up of 61 months (range, 30 to 103 months), all 5 ARCO stage IIC hips survived but 3 of the 6 ARCO stage IIIA hips failed. The overall clinical success rate was 73%. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that local cancellous bone grafting combined with a space-filling device implanted into the ONFH is a promising procedure and the wire coil showed no interference to the remodeling of the femoral head after grafting.