ArticleJournal of orthopaedic surgery and research2026
Effect of zoledronate on avascular necrosis of the femoral head according to disease stage and bone resorption activity.
Article in Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research, 2026. 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
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAvascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head is a progressive condition that leads to collapse of the femoral head in 85% of symptomatic patients when left untreated. As it is typically a disease that occurs among the younger population, the consequent arthroplasty of the hip is a radical procedure. In this study, we investigated the effect of intravenous zoledronate infusion in patients with avascular necrosis of the femoral head.
methodsThis retrospective study included 94 hips diagnosed with AVN of the femoral head that were treated off-label with 4 mg intravenous zoledronate once or twice in 3-month intervals during the years 2007-2019 at Oulu University Hospital.
resultsWe found that 38% of the zoledronate-treated hips did not require arthroplasty; 75% of patients not requiring arthroplasty were men. Risk factors for arthroplasty were high Association Research Circulation Osseous (ARCO) stage, large volume of osteonecrosis and edema at baseline, 3, and 6 months of follow-up. High resorption activity indicated by higher levels of cross-linked carboxy- terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP) after zoledronate infusion in hips classified as ARCO IV predicted a poor outcome (p=0.002). The mean follow-up for those not requiring arthroplasty was 102.4 months.
conclusionZoledronate treatment is more likely to be effective in male patients with early-stage osteonecrosis (ARCO I-II), whereas advanced-stage disease (ARCO III-IV) may not respond well. Moreover, an accelerated bone resorption rate, indicated by elevated ICTP levels after zoledronate infusion, is associated with an increased risk of treatment failure.
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.