Femoral Head Necrosis
Study
Femoral Head Necrosis*
Authors, title of the study and source:
Aaron RK, Lennox D, Bunce GE, Ebert T: The conservative treatment of osteonecrosis of a vascular necrosis of the femoral head. A comparison of core decompression and pulsating electromagnetic fields. Clin Orthop 1989;249:209-218.
Number of patients: 116
Disease:
Osteonecrosis of the femoral head
Treatment:
72 Hz, Pulse, 8 hours per day (over night), 12 to 18 months. Follow up: 24 months.
Improvement MFT:
Clinical improvement (pain, mobility) at 68% vs. 44% in the control group; MFT In this disease the bone tissue collapses by x-ray: Only 13 % in the MFT group vs. 42% in the control group had this phenomenon. When the disease was not so distinct, the differences were even greater. A lot of patients, who were treated with MFT, still had the improved function after 5 years.
Remarks:
Osteonecrosis occurs predominantly in young adults and develops in 80-90% within 3 years into osteoarthritis with a serious disability. Conservative (= "non-surgical) therapies do not show satisfactory results. Here, the decompression (removal of part of necrosis) was used as a control treatment.
** The treatment with pulsating magnetic field seems to be superior because of double blind controlled randomized studies of the Placebo-treatment.
* The treatment with pulsating magnetic field seems to be superior because of the controlled studies of the control-treatment.
