Efficacy of Core Decompression for Treatment of Canine Femoral Head Osteonecrosis Induced by Arterial Ischaemia and Venous Congestion

Methods: 40 healthy mixed-breed dogs were randomly divided into 2 groups, arterial ischaemia (AI) and venous congestion (VC), each containing 20 dogs. The dogs underwent a procedure where the deep femoral artery or deep femoral vein was ligated randomly on the left or right side to establish the femoral head osteonecrosis model. 13 dogs from each group, AI and VC, were randomly selected for subsequent study. 3 dogs were randomly chosen from each group to receive core decompression (CD) every 2 weeks for a total of 4 sessions.

Results: The development of femoral head osteonecrosis was slightly slowed at each measurement time point after CD in the arterial ischaemia (AI) group, but no restoration was observed. The venous congestion (VC) group showed a gradually reduced mixed signal after CD and exhibited a trend towards restoration. The various VC subgroups had significantly improved symptoms compared to the AI subgroups.

Conclusions: CD displayed greater treatment efficacy for femoral head osteonecrosis caused by VC, but poor efficacy for femoral head osteonecrosis caused by AI.