Vascularity of the Femoral Head After Birmingham Hip Resurfacing. A Technetium Tc 99m Bone Scan/Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Study
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Gabrielle Hawdon; Badrul S. Badaruddin; Viroj Larbpaiboonpong; Stephen J. McMahon; Zita Ballok; David Young
- Source
- The Journal of Arthroplasty. 21:514-521
- Subject
- medicine.medical_specialty
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip
medicine.medical_treatment
chemistry.chemical_element
Avascular necrosis
Single-photon emission computed tomography
Prosthesis Design
Technetium
Femoral head
Vascularity
Technetium TC-99m
medicine
Humans
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
medicine.diagnostic_test
Phantoms, Imaging
business.industry
Reproducibility of Results
Femur Head
medicine.disease
Arthroplasty
Hip resurfacing
medicine.anatomical_structure
chemistry
Hip Prosthesis
Radiology
medicine.symptom
business
Nuclear medicine
- Language
- ISSN
- 0883-5403
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.