Do I have to be on bed rest for femoral head necrosis?

  Many people think that osteonecrosis of the femoral head an orthopedic disease, we must be bedridden. In fact, this is wrong. Experts point out that one of the traditional treatments for osteonecrosis of the femoral head is to put the patient in bed and traction on the affected limb to limit the patient’s activities and weight bearing in order to reduce the load on the femoral head and achieve the purpose of treatment. However, the side effects of bed traction, such as muscle atrophy, contracture of the joint capsule and ligaments, and stiffness of the joints, can add to the problems of osteonecrosis and make the dysfunction of the limb more obvious.  Therefore, we strongly advocate strengthening functional exercise while limiting weight bearing and walking, which can not only prevent complications arising from the inactivity of the locomotor organs, but also relax the tendons and blood, build up the joints, maintain and improve the function, and create conditions for the whole treatment. Sun Wei, Department of Bone and Joint Surgery, China-Japan Friendship Hospital We often find in medical practice that the more painful a patient is, the less he or she will move, and the less he or she moves, the more painful it will be and the more contracted the joint will be, forming a vicious circle. On the contrary, if the pain is overcome and functional exercises are actively performed, the pain is reduced and the function of the limb is improved.  Therefore, we advocate the combination of braking and functional exercise, that is, to actively carry out functional exercise without weight bearing, and then with the overall treatment of the whole body, will achieve good therapeutic results.