The venous drainage of the femoral neck as a prognostic sign in Perthes' disease.

The correlation between delayed venous drainage from the femoral neck and "head at risk" factors were studied in 47 patients (50 hips) with Perthes' disease. A good correlation was found between markedly disturbed venous drainage and "head at risk" factors. Lateral subluxation of the femoral head and Gage's sign correlated best with pathological venography. Thus a severely disturbed venous return from a hip with Perthes' disease seems to be a poor prognostic sign.