A 12-year follow-up study of combined treatment of post-severe acute respiratory syndrome patients with femoral head necrosis

Liu, Tiansheng; Ma, Jinchao; Su, Bin; Wang, Hao; Wang, Qi; Ma, Xinlong

During follow-up period, 1 patient received artificial hip joint replacement, and 6 patients were lost to follow-up. Eventually, there were 37 post-SARS ONFH patients (66 hip joints) included, consisting of 6 males (11 hip joints) and 31 females (55 hip joints). All patients received prednisone treatment for 4-11 days (average =9.56±3.70 days), with a daily dosage of 180-1,430 mg (average =545.00±366.17 mg) and total dosage between 1,189 and 11,440 mg (average =4,702.22±2,826.94 mg). The average age of patients at disease onset was 29.9, ranging from 19 to 47 years. Among 37 patients, there were 29 bilateral necrosis and 8 unilateral cases. There were 14 hip joints with limb shortening by 1-2 cm. All patients presented hip joint pain to different degrees. VAS score showed 4 patients (7 hip joints) with ,5 points, 10 patients (17 joints) at 5-7 points and 23 patients (42 joints) at 8-10 points. Harris score showed 4 cases (7 joints) with good, 5 cases (8 joints) with satisfactory, 10 cases (19 joints) with acceptable and 18 cases (32 joints) with unfavorable conditions. Imaging examination of ARCO stage 12 showed 36, 21 and 9 joints at Phase I, Phase II and Phase III, respectively.