Trend of Surgical Treatment of Femoral Head Osteonecrosis in South Korea

Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a disease that often results in femoral head collapse and subsequent hip arthritis. The annual incidence of ONFH in the United States is estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 cases [1, 2]. In East Asian countries, it is the most or second-most common disease for hip arthroplasty, with more than 10,000 patients affected each year in South Korea [4] and an annual incidence rate of 1.91/100,000 in Japan [3]. Most patients with advanced-stage ONFH eventually require total hip arthroplasty (THA), which accounts for more than 10% of all THAs in the United States [6] and up to 50% in East Asia [7, 8] and sub-Saharan Africa [9].