Femoral head resurfacing in the treatment of osteonecrosis: 3 To 5-year follow-up

We reviewed the clinical and radiological results of 32-cemented femoral head resurfacing arthroplasty, performed by a single surgeon in 25 patients with femoral head osteonecrosis at a mean age of 36.2 years. All patients received a cemented conserve (Wright Medical Technology Inc., Arlington, TN, USA) femoral hemiresurfacing arthroplasty. Data were complete on 16 patients with 21 hips at a mean follow-up period of 50.8 months. Five patients had bilateral procedures. The Harris hip score, and the Merle d'Aubigné score improved significantly from 54.7 to 72.3 (P = 0.0001), and from 12.1 to 13.9 (P = 0.01), respectively. Seven hips had undergone revision to total hip arthroplasty at the time of follow-up while one hip is scheduled for revision surgery, representing a 38% failure rate. When clinical failure is defined as a Harris Hip Score of less than 70 at follow-up, clinical failure was 81% at 4.25 years.