Introduction Avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head is a common orthopaedic complication in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). By age 35, approximately half of patients homozygous for the sickle cell gene mutation have AVN, with involvement of both hips in 40-91% of patients. Without early intervention, the rate of femoral head collapse is high and often necessitates total hip arthr...

eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is gaining popularity and is being used widely on internet for storing and exchanging data. Large XML files when transferred on network create bottleneck and also degrade the query performance. Therefore, efficient mechanisms of compression and decompression are applied to XML files. In this paper, an algorithm for performing XML compression and decompression is...

INTRODUCTION Core decompression is an efficient treatment for early stage ischemic necrosis of the femoral head. In conventional procedures, the pre-operative X-ray only shows one plane of the ischemic area, which often results in inaccurate drilling. This paper introduces a new method that uses computer-assisted technology and rapid prototyping to enhance drilling accuracy during core decompre...

Humeral head osteonecrosis is a progressive disease that requires prompt diagnosis and treatment. Core decompression is a viable treatment option for early-stage cases. Most surgeons perform core decompression by arthroscopically visualizing the necrotic area of bone and using a cannulated drill to take a core. Several attempts are frequently needed to reach the proper location. In the hip mult...

Thirty shoulders, in 20 patients, which had undergone core decompression for symptomatic avascular necrosis of the humeral head were reviewed 2 to 14 years later (average 5.6). Twenty-two showed good or excellent clinical results; the other eight shoulders had required arthroplasty. All 14 shoulders with stage I or II radiological changes (Ficat and Arlet 1980) at operation had good or excellen...

We reviewed 11 patients (17 ankles) who had had core decompression for symptomatic avascular necrosis of the talus before collapse. The Mazur grading system was used to assess function preoperatively and at final follow-up, and radiographs were graded according to the Ficat and Arlet (1980) classification modified for the ankle. At a mean follow-up of seven years (2 to 14) 14 ankles (82%) had a...

PURPOSE Kienböck disease is characterized by avascular necrosis of the lunate bone, which is usually progressive without treatment. This study examined lunate core decompression for its treatment potential. METHODS We surgically treated 20 patients with stage 1 to 3b Kienböck disease with lunate core decompression. We evaluated pain, range of motion, functional disability, and radiographic in...

There is a need for an effective and noninvasive treatment for intractable bone marrow edema syndrome of the hip. Forty-six patients with intractable bone marrow edema syndrome of the hip were retrospectively studied to compare the short-term clinical effects of treatment with high-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy vs femoral head core decompression. The postoperative visual analog scale...