Muscle-pedicle grafts or muscle-pedicle-bone grafts in the treatment of avascular necrotic femoral heads.

The paper is a microangiographic study of the revascularisation of experimentally devascularised femoral heads in rabbits. We examined the revascularisation process in muscle pedicles implanted into the devascularised femoral heads. Two forms of pediculated grafts were used: muscle-pedicle grafts and muscle-bone-pedicle grafts. The pedicles were formed from the gluteal muscle. The end of the muscle-bone-pedicle graft was formed by a small piece of trochanter major. The revascularisation process was quicker in the case of the pure muscle-pedicle grafts, and it was delayed in muscle-bone-pedicle grafts, which can be explained by the morphological differences between the two forms. A 2-week delay was observed during the 12-week observation period. A quicker process may mean better progress of revascularisation.