Femoral anteversion and the neck-shaft angle: relationship with hip osteoarthritis

Abstract

Objective: To compare the existence of agreement between measurements of anteversion of the femoral neck and the degrees of osteoarthritis and abnormality of the neck-shaft angle in patients with unilateral idiopathic hip osteoarthritis, among three evaluators.

Methods: Forty-two patients with unilateral hip osteoarthritis were evaluated by means of simple radiography and computed tomography.

Results: It was observed that there was no significant variation in femoral anteversion between the diseased and healthy hips. There was strongest agreement between observers 1 and 2 in relation to both the diseased hips (cases) and the healthy hips (controls). Moreover, no significant agreement was found between observers 1 and 3 (p = 0.13) and between observers 2 and 3 (p = 0.12), in relation to the neck-shaft angle of the control hips.

Conclusion: Although there was no relationship between femoral anteversion and the neck-shaft angle in the patients with unilateral hip osteoarthritis, the present study showed that there was also no relationship with these angular deviations.