A long-term follow-up study of four cases who underwent curettage and autogenous bone grafting for steroid-related osteonecrosis of the femoral condyle.

We performed curettage followed by autogenous bone grafting in several cases of steroid-related osteonecrosis of the femoral condyle, and reviewed the outcome of this procedure after a mean follow-up of 9.5 years. The number of patients was 4; the mean age at the time of the operation was 30.5 years. The mean Knee Society Objective Score was 52.5 before the operation and had increased to 87.5 at the time of the review. The pre-operative radiographic stages were stage 2 in 2 patients and stage 3 in the other 2 patients. Progression in the disease stage was observed in 3 patients. MRI revealed survival of the grafted bone in only one case, and collapse of the articular surface in all cases. In conclusion, though the clinical results showed improvement, the autogenous bone graft failed to answer the purpose of preventing the progression in disease stage.