Subchondral Stress Fracture of the Femoral Head

Subchondral stress fracture occurs most frequently in the femoral head, but it can occur in other anatomical locations such as the femoral condyle, tibial condyle, talar dome, humeral head, and acetabulum [1–8]. Although it is a recently recognized disease condition with the advent of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging [9–13], the occurrence of fatigue fractures in the subchondral trabecular bone was confirmed histologically in the early 1970s by cadaver or surgical specimen studies [14–17].