title: Vascularity of the femoral head after Birmingham hip resurfacing. A technetium Tc 99m bone scan/single photon emission computed tomography study.
abstract: To investigate the vascularity of femoral heads after Birmingham hip resurfacing (BHR), we used a visual scale to assess technetium Tc 99m HDP planar and single photon emission computed tomography bone scans of 36 arthroplasties in 32 asymptomatic patients for an average of 26 months after BHR. The validity of this method was demonstrated by comparing levels of radiation detected from within and immediately adjacent to a BHR prosthesis placed on a technetium Tc 99m radioisotope tracer-filled hollow tube and further validated in vivo by comparing radiation levels from bilateral hip scans in human subjects with 2 normal hips and with unilateral BHR. All femoral heads scanned postoperatively appeared vascular. We speculate that preserved femoral head vascularity after BHR may be related to increased intraosseous blood supply from metaphyseal vessels in arthritic hips.
authors.affiliation: Monash Medical Centre, Department of Surgery, Clayton, Australia; Malabar Orthopaedic Clinic, Windsor, Australia.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: McMahon
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Zita
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ballok
authors.forename: Badrul S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Badaruddin
authors.forename: Viroj
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Larbpaiboonpong
authors.forename: Gabrielle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hawdon
mesh_terms: D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip / Q000379:methods; D005270:Femur Head / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D006622:Hip Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013667:Technetium; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D013667:Technetium