Avascular osteonecrosis in patients treated for Hodgkin's disease.

The aim of this study is to assess the risk of avascular osteonecrosis (AVN) of the femoral head in patients treated for Hodgkin's disease (HD), in relation to the type of treatment they have received. For this purpose, a cohort of 1391 patients treated for HD at University of Rome between 1972 and 1996 was divided into 2 groups according to their initial treatment. The first group contained 784 patients treated, at the onset of HD, either with chemotherapy (CT) containing steroids, combined in some cases with subdiaphragmatic radiotherapy (RT), or with subdiaphragmatic RT combined with CT without steroids. The second group was made up of 607 patients who had received, initially, supradiaphragmatic RT alone or supradiaphragmatic RT combined with CT without steroids. For the purpose of this study, only the 784 patients belonging to the first group were observed for the appearance of AVN, which occurred in 9 cases. The period of time which elapsed between the end of treatment and the radiological evidence of AVN ranged from 23 to 97 months, with an average of 35 months. Because the number of cases of AVN was so small, the pathogenesis of this complication could not be identified.