A Mechanical Analysis of Femoral Resurfacing Implantation for Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head

Hip resurfacing is becoming a popular procedure for treating osteonecrosis of the femoral head However the biomechanical changes that occur after femoral resurfacing have not been fully investigated with respect to the individual extent of the necrosis In this study, we evaluated biomechanical changes at various extents of necrosis and implant alignments using the finite element analysis method We established 3 patterns of necrosis by depth from the surface of femoral head and 5 stem angles For these models we evaluated biomechanical changes associated with the extent of necrosis and the stem alignment Our results indicate that stress distribution near the bone-cement interface increased with expansion of the necrosis The maximum stress on the prosthesis was decreased with stem angles ranging from 130 degrees to 140 degrees The peak stress of cement increased as the stem angle became varus This study indicates that resurfacing arthroplasty will have adverse biomechanical effects when there is a large extent of osteonecrosis and excessive varus or valgus implantation of the prosthesis