The vascular network in the femoral head and neck after hip resurfacing.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether femoral neck fracture after cemented resurfacing hip arthroplasty (RHA) arises from intraosseous vascularity around the femoral head-neck junction. We implanted a replica of the femoral head component into osteoarthritic femoral heads and compared the intraosseous vascularity network between the femoral heads with and without the RHA procedure using microangiography through a retinacular artery with micro-computed tomography. Our results showed no significant difference in the vascularity around the femoral head-neck junction between the groups with and without the RHA procedure. These results suggest that deterioration of the intraosseous vascular network around the head-neck junction after RHA was not severe enough to induce complete avascularity.