Is This Rapid Destructive Hip Osteoarthritis ?

Rapid destructive hip osteoarthritis is a diagnosis by exclusion. It should be differentiated from septic arthritis, osteonecrosis, neuropathic arthritis and other aetiologies causing rapid bone resorption or destruction around the hip. The present study aims to review the incidence of rapid destructive hip osteoarthritis among those patients who request total hip arthroplasty for end stage arthrosis. A retrospective review of radiographs of all patients who scheduled for total hip arthroplasty from January 2010 to March 2019 were analysed by 3 orthopaedic fellows. Of 174 hips of 146 patients, 35 hips of 29 patients were considered by at least 2 orthopaedic fellows to have rapid destructive hip osteoarthritis based on radiographic criteria of rapid joint space narrowing or rapid destruction of femoral head with or without acetabular involvement. Clinical history and physical finding, blood biochemistry, cultures and pathology with or without frozen section are reviewed. Early total hip arthroplasty, rather than routine operation in the long waiting list, is recommended for rapid destructive hip osteoarthritis to prevent technical difficulty in dealing with the bone loss or defect associated with rapid destructive hip osteoarthritis. However, one must exclude septic arthritis before proceeding to total hip arthroplasty. In clinically highly suspected cases, staged total hip arthroplasty was done despite of normal initial blood investigationsand negative hip aspiration with equivocal frozen section on table. In one such patient, the culture was initially negative, but became positive only after extended period of culture. On the other hand, rapid destruction of acetabulum requiring impaction bone grafting and acetabular augmentation for total hip arthroplasty was needed in one patient. Malignancy was suspected in another patient, but there was no evidence of malignancy or infection in the femoral head and tissue obtained by excisional arthroplasty of hip. One patient with hip pain and bilateral hip involvement was found to have Charcot joint. Rapid destruction hip osteoarthritis represents an uncommon subset of arthrosis with rapid progression. A delicate balance between correct diagnosis and timely early operation should be exercised to prevent rapid loss of bone stock making delayed total hip arthroplasty become technical difficult with possible compromised outcomes.