What is medullary core decompression for femoral head necrosis?

  Coredecompression (CD) was first proposed by Dr. Arlet and Dr. Ficat in 1964 to significantly relieve hip pain, delay hip replacement, and effectively “save the hip”. By reducing the pressure in the femoral head, improving venous return and promoting blood supply reconstruction and repair of necrotic bone tissue, this treatment can significantly reduce the pain of the hip joint. The bone marrow cavity is a strong closed system, and the blood vessels that travel in the cavity to supply the femoral head are often compressed by the bone marrow tissue, which is also a way of regulating blood flow in the body. The pressure in the bone marrow cavity, caused by various reasons, makes the bone marrow tissue directly compress these vessels. The compression of blood vessels makes the appearance of obstructed venous return and bone marrow edema, which further exacerbates the increase of intra-medullary pressure, similar to the osteofascial compartment syndrome, a vicious circle, with the final outcome being the occurrence of ischemic necrosis of the femoral head. The clinical application of marrow core decompression combined with intramedullary bone grafting aims to reduce the excessive pressure in the femoral head, improve the local blood supply to the femoral head, and bone grafting can effectively fill the bone defect, promote bone healing and regeneration and provide effective mechanical support, which can prevent or delay the collapse of the femoral head and provide favorable conditions for the repair of ONFH. Because the principle of this procedure is accepted by most surgeons and there are numerous successful cases, this method has been the main minimally invasive surgical method for the treatment of early stage femoral head necrosis “hip preservation”, and its clinical efficacy has been widely reported in the literature.