Vascularity of femoral head and its assessment after femoral neck fractures

Abstract

Femoral neck fracture has an annual incidence of 1 per 1000 population; in young patients, functional prognosis is not good due to risk of osteonecrosis. Femoral head vascularity is mostly contributed by retinacular vessels and lateral epiphyseal artery. The vascular impact is due to displacement, interrupting retinacular vessel, interrupting ligament teres vascularization, and increased intracapsular pressure, producing a tamponade effect leading to osteonecrosis. This study reviewed the different methods of assessment of femoral head vascularity after femoral neck fractures. There are many techniques for the assessment of residual femoral head vascularity after femoral neck fractures and for the assessment of post-traumatic osteonecrosis risk. Some invasive techniques are superselective angiography, intraosseous oxygen pressure measurement, or Doppler-laser hemodynamic measurement; others are noninvasive scintigraphy and conventional or dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The future seems to lie with dynamic MRI, which gives new classification of femoral neck fractures, based on a noninvasive assessment of femoral head vascularity.