Osteonecrosis of the femoral head due to brucellosis: a case report

BACKGROUND: Brucellosis is a zoonotic infection transmitted from infected animals to humans, osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a devastating disease that affects patients’ life with pain, dysfunction of walking and always lead to total hip arthroplasty (THA). We presented a case of ONFH which was very likely due to the infection of Brucella spp. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient was a 49 years-old male who was a herder living in Inner Mongolia, the northern part of China. He first showed recurrent fever then presented bilateral hip pain, which was confirmed to be brucellosis and ONFH on the right side of the hip. He was admitted to our center showed bilateral ONFH with the restrictive movement of both hips. We performed THA after it was confirmed that the infection has been cured. The patient can walk with the help of the walker the second day after surgery. CONCLUSION: Brucellosis is still a common epidemic disease worldwide, which can lead to many complications, brucellosis arthritis is the most common complication of Brucellosis. Osteonecrosis of the femoral head can also present in the patients with brucellosis. All the patients presented with recurrent fever and hip pain, who is from the epidemic region, should be taken both septic arthritis and ONFH into consideration.