Assessment of vascularity of head of femur by bone scan and histopathology.

A prospective study of 17 patients with fracture neck of femur was undertaken to study the vascularity of the femoral head by bone scan using Technetium-99m MDP, as well as to study the viability of the femoral head by histopathology, and therefore determine correlation, if any, between these two methods. Treatment was by primary endoprosthetic replacement (Moore's Arthroplasty). In 16 of the 17 patients the bone scan showed decreased vascularity of the head, but histopathological examination could not confirm non-viability of the head. It is likely that, since the majority of the patients were operated on within 4 days, there was insufficient time for histopathological evidence of ischemia to develop, prior to removal of the femoral heads.