A study of the oxygenation of trochanteric bone blood and its correlation with the maximum intra-medullary pressure value in 85 cases of chronic coxopathy.

The authors carried out measurements of the gases (pH, PCO2, PO2, SaO2) on blood from the trochanter of 85 chronic hip diseases in 73 patients. Simultaneous measurements were made on the arterial blood and on the blood of the femoral vein of the same side. A statistically significant difference in blood PO2 and oxygen saturation between the group of necrosis of the femoral head and the group of osteoarthritic hips was found. There is a paradoxical oxygen hypersaturation in case of necrosis. This hypersaturation is observed to parallel the increase of the intramedullary pressure in the same bone area.