ArticleCureus2025
Outcomes of Hip Avascular Necrosis Following COVID-19 Infection: A Retrospective Analysis of 212 Hips With Minimum Two-Year Follow-Up.
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAvascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head has been observed to occur after COVID-19, especially if steroids were taken. However, the knowledge about its progress in these cases is lacking. We aimed to evaluate the progress of a disease after post-COVID AVN and the effect of various treatments.
methodsThis was a retrospective observational study conducted on 118 patients (212 hips) diagnosed with hip AVN following COVID-19 infection between June 2021 and September 2021. Patients were followed up for a minimum duration of 2 years and evaluated based on demographics, Ficat and Arlet staging, corticosteroid usage, and assessment of treatment modality outcomes. Harris Hip Scores (HHS) were recorded at presentation, 3 months, and 2 years.
resultsThe mean age of the cohort was 36.8 years (SD: 10.9), with a majority of males (N=103, 87.3%). The mean interval between the diagnosis of COVID-19 and the onset of hip symptoms was 10.8 months (range: 1-24 months; SD: 5.9) and the mean interval between the onset of hip symptoms and the diagnosis of AVN was 3.65 weeks (range: 1-8 weeks; SD: 1.9), indicating the rapid progress of the disease. The majority of them presented with bilateral AVN (79.7%), with Ficat and Arlet Grade 2 (50.9%) and Grade 3 (41%) AVN, respectively. The mean cumulative steroid dose (prednisolone equivalents) was 439.27 mg (SD: 583.29), with a mean duration of 12.76 days (SD: 12.3). Patients managed conservatively showed an initial improvement in HHS from 77.3 (SD: 11) at presentation to 88.4 (SD: 7.6) at 3 months but declined to 81.8 (SD: 9.7) at 2 years (p<0.001). Core decompression alone resulted in a decline from 73 (SD: 13.5) to 69.5 (SD: 12) at 2 years. In contrast, total hip arthroplasty (THA) led to significant improvement from 64.4 (SD: 12.4) to 92.4 (SD: 3.3) at 2 years (p<0.001).
conclusionPost-COVID-19 AVN is an aggressive and rapidly progressing condition affecting young individuals, even with relatively low corticosteroid exposure. Conservative treatments provide only transient benefit, while THA offers substantial and sustained functional improvement in advanced AVN. Early identification and timely surgical intervention, where indicated, are crucial to optimizing patient outcomes in clinical practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.