Cortical bone allografting in femoral head necrosis.

Ten femoral heads (six patients) with avascular necrosis were operated on using a fibular allograft. The procedure included core decompression followed by insertion of a cortical bone graft in order to relieve mechanical stresses from the overlying subchondral bone. The presence of the supporting graft should avoid an expected collapse or prevent its worsening if already present. A freeze-dried and processed cortical bone allograft was preferred to an autograft. Weightbearing was normally and fully resumed at the second postoperative month. There were three failures within the first year, four satisfactory results, in which the hip was replaced after 4 years while there are still 3 hips that have been preserved from arthroplasty in young patients after 5 years. The technique is easy and able to substantially delay an arthroplasty in an active patient.