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

OBJECTIVE To investigate the long-term efficacy of a combination treatment of alendronate, extracorporeal shock and hyperbaric oxygen for osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) of post-severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS The retrospective study was performed including a total of 37 post-SARS ONFH patients (66 hip joints) in the Department of Orthopedics of the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University between November 2003 and November 2015, consisting of 6 males (11 hip joints) and 31 females (55 hip joints), with age between 19 and 47 years (average 29.9 years). Visual analog scale (VAS) score, Harris score and Association Research Circulation Osseous (ARCO) stage of imaging examination were compared among those before treatment, and at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 years after treatment. Paired t-test was used for statistical analysis of VAS and Harris score before and after treatment. Difference of effective rate on all stages was analyzed with Chi-square test. RESULTS With 12-year follow-up, significant improvements on VAS (6.81 of pre-treatment vs 3.94 of 12-year post-treatment) and Harris score (74.54 of pre-treatment vs 80.14 of 12-year post-treatment) were observed (all p<0.05). Effective rate showed statistical significance among three stages of ARCO (p<0.05). The combined treatment showed different efficacies on different ARCO stages; the best was on ARCO Phase I. CONCLUSION The combined treatment may delay or discontinue the development of ONFH in post-SARS patients.