Patient-reported outcomes of femoral osteotomy and total hip arthroplasty for osteonecrosis of the femoral head: a prospective case series study

BACKGROUND: Patient-reported scoring systems have recently been used after surgical procedures. The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate the patient-reported outcomes of femoral osteotomy and total hip arthroplasty (THA) for osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). METHODS: Forty-two symptomatic ONFH patients with asymptomatic contralateral hip underwent either transtrochanteric anterior rotational osteotomy (ARO) or THA as a primary operation. Of these, 20 patients whose contralateral hips remained asymptomatic at the final follow-up (more than 1 year postoperatively) were recruited to participate in this study. Nine patients were treated with ARO (ARO group) and 11 patients were treated with THA (THA group). Both the Oxford hip score (OHS) and the short form 36 (SF-36) were evaluated preoperatively and at the final follow-up. RESULTS: The preoperative OHS was 29.1 ± 10.9 and 21.9 ± 9.6 points in the ARO and THA groups, which significantly improved to 38.4 ± 9.4 and 40.3 ± 5.1 points at the final follow-up, respectively. The preoperative physical component summary score was 30.8 ± 12.8 and 17.8 ± 14.5 points in the ARO group and THA groups, which significantly improved to 44.5 ± 10.6 and 43.3 ± 10.4 points at the final follow-up, respectively. The preoperative mental component summary score was 48.0 ± 8.5 and 48.6 ± 11.3 points in the ARO and THA groups, both of which remained unchanged at the final follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The short-term patient-reported outcomes of this study suggested that both ARO and THA for ONFH resulted in significantly improved postoperative hip joint function.