Artikel
Five-year follow-up study of a kidney-tonifying and activating-blood herbal fufang for osteonecrosis of the femoral head
Suche in Medline nach
Autoren
Veröffentlicht: | 23. Oktober 2017 |
---|
Gliederung
Text
Objectives: Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a common disorder in young adults leading to collapse of the femoral head and subsequent hip osteoarthritis. Most patients with ONFH have hip pain and loss of function, which severely affect the life quality of patients. Chinese medicine therapy for ONFH has been studied for quite a long time, but the effectiveness of the treatment still remains unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a Kidney-tonifying and Activating-blood Herbal Fufang (KAHF) in the treatment of ONFH.
Methods: We present a clinical and radiological analysis of 156 patients (192 hips) with ARCO stage-I, II or III ONFH which were treated with oral KAHF (4 capsules once, three times per day) for two years with the follow-up period ranged from 2 to 19 years. Harris Hip Score (HHS), Short Form 36 (SF-36) health survey, and plain radiographs were obtained to evaluate the hip function, quality of life, and disease progression, respectively. These outcomes were compared with those of a historic control group taken from the literature.
Results and Conclusion: 57 patients (61 hips) with asymptomatic ONFH and 99 patients (131 hips) with symptomatic ONFH have been followed up for a minimum of 2 years, 125 patients (155 hips) for more than 2 years, 25 patients (30 hips) for more than 5 years, and 6 patients (7 hips) for more than 10 years. All of the patients had not required total hip arthroplasty (THA). Our results indicate an improvement in pain, hip function and life quality and a decrease in the radiographic progression rate in asymptomatic ONFH, compared with the findings of other studies in which no treatment was given. In symptomatic ONFH, KAHF has no obvious effect on preventing the radiographic progression, however, it can reduce pain, improve function and life quality. Particularly, this improvement is prominently if the treatment is begun in the asymptomatic stage of ONFH. Even in a large-sized necrotic range a better clinical successful rate was obtained from treatment with KAHF by at least a delay in the need for THA. KAHF appeared to be a effective treatment option for avoiding early surgical intervention in patients with asymptomatic ONFH and ARCO stage-I or II symptomatic ONFH.