Hip diseases with rapid chondrolysis. Clinical and anatomical comparison.

Coxopathies with rapid chondrolysis: Comparison of clinical and anatomical findings. Clinical, radiological, laboratory, and antomical data concerning 14 coxopathies with rapid chodrolysis are presented with reference to 12 patients aged from 37 to 77 years. Three criteria define this affection: reduction of the joint space by at least 50 per cent, in one year or less; chondrolysis completed in 1 to 3 years; complete narrowing in the superior part of the joint; isolated narrowing, exceptionally with a discrete osteophytosis. The pain rapidly becomes very severe. Such symptoms are, at first, indicative of coxitis, but the establishment of a radio-clinical picture of coxopathy rapid chrondrolysis is more indicative of an arthrosic origin. This could represent a particular evolutive stage of coxarthrosis related to the initial chondrolytic phase of rapid destructive coxarthrosis. From an early stage, the anatomical facts indicate an association between the degenerative lesions and the non-specific inflammatory lesions of the synovial membrane. These facts are interpreted, on the basis of data in the literature, as an indication of synovial lesions caused by the liberation of osteocartilaginous fragments. The problem of the pathogenesis of this rapid chondrolysis is then discussed.