Avascular Necrosis – Remodeling

Transcript

When the bone is no longer receiving an adequate blood supply, that actually stops to remodel. So our bones and our bodies are always remodeling. They’re putting in bone, they’re taking away bone, allowing our body to have an adequate source of calcium for different processes around the body. The areas of bone that are no longer receiving this blood supply, they stop remodeling. And therefore they’re more likely to collapse. And therefore not as strong as other parts of the body would be. In the case of the femoral head, avascular necrosis causes the top part of that bone to be more susceptible to collapse. Patients who have early signs of avascular necrosis of the femoral head may have very little symptoms because at this point, the bone is still structurally intact and is not yet collapsed.