Simple Treatment Can Help Prevent Many Thousands of Hip Replacements
(CINCINNATI; July 10, 2012) – Doctors perform tens of thousands of hip replacements in the United States each year, many to treat a bone disease called osteonecrosis, which leads to the collapse of the head of the femur. However, a new study finds that a simple medical treatment could prevent the need for a number of these osteonecrosis-related hip replacements.
Charles Glueck, M.D., Medical Director of the Cholesterol and Metabolism Center at The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health, and his colleague Richard Freiberg, M.D., of Cincinnati VA Medical Center, found that about 10% of patients with osteonecrosis of the hip develop this condition because they have inherited a clotting abnormality. This abnormality, known as the Factor V Leiden mutation, disrupts blood supply to the bone by increasing blood clotting and this can lead to the destruction of the head of the hip bone (the femur).
“If doctors determine that the mutation is causing osteonecrosis before it leads to the irreversible collapse of the head of the femur, three or more months of anticoagulation treatment can arrest or even reverse the process,” says Dr. Glueck. “The patient can then recover without having a painful and costly total hip replacement.”
“Men and women with persistent pain in their hip joints should see their doctor, who may order X-rays and MRIs to see if the patient has osteonecrosis. If so, patients should consider having a blood test to determine if they are at high risk for blood clots, because that information could point the way toward an effective treatment option,” he added.
Drs. Glueck and Freiberg studied 244 patients with osteonecrosis of one or both hips between 1997 and 2011. Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis published their study on June 12, 2012. Drs. Gail Boriel, Zia Khan, Amanpreet Brar, Jagjit Padda and Ping Wang, PhD, all of the Cholesterol and Metabolism Center at The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health, also contributed to the study.
|
