Enthesopathy of the hip joint.

Morphologically, enthesopathy appears as dystrophic calcification or ossification of tendon insertion. In the study of the initial stages of arthrosis on necroptic material roentgenologically 158 and of these histologically 62 hip joints were investigated. A typical picture of so-called non-inflammatory enthesopathy was present in thirteen cases on the major and in three cases on the minor trochanter. Histologically, we observed enthesopathy-like changes, but to a much lesser extent in the insertions of the articular capsule. These pictures which on the X-ray resembled initial osteophytes were found seven times on the head of the femur and fourteen times on the edge of the joint acetabulum. There was no correlation to osteoarthrosis.