Acute effect of traction, compression, and hip joint tamponade on blood flow of the femoral head: an experimental model.

Blood flow rates of the canine femoral head were experimentally determined during traction, compression, and hip joint tamponade using the hydrogen washout technique. In puppies, blood flow rate of the femoral head was significantly decreased with either traction or compression applied at one half body weight. Either maneuver, when combined with hip joint tamponade, reduced blood flow rate of the femoral head an average of more than 70% as compared with the initial control rate. In adult dogs, combinations of either traction or compression, at one-half body weight, with hip joint tamponade did not significantly decrease blood flow rate of the femoral head as compared with control values. Perfusion defect of blue silicone could be observed only in puppies around the hip during combinations of traction or compression with hip joint tamponade and involved the posterior superior capital branches of the medial circumflex artery and the arteries in the ligamentum teres. These experimental data may have important implications for the pathogenesis of iatrogenic avascular necrosis in the treatment of congenitally dislocated hip, Legg-Perthes disease, and avascular necrosis following nondisplaced femoral neck fracture.