Isolated trabecular fatigue fractures in the femoral head.

Twenty-seven femoral heads were obtained at operation from patients with osteoarthrosis and two from patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Twenty of the osteoarthrosic and one of the rheumatoid patients were given oxytetracycline for between three and fourteen days immediately before operation. Oxytetracycline is deposited in newly formed bone and fluoresces yellow in ultra-violet light. Seven additional femoral heads were removed at operation following subcapital fracture of the femur. Ten others were obtained after death from patients not having a clinical history of hip disease. Nine of these necropsy specimens (taken from cadavers in the age range thirty-seven to ninety) showed some fibrillation or ulceration of the articular cartilage and the bone was to a varying extent porotic. The remaining specimen (from a cadaver aged twenty) was normal.