Osteonecrosis of the femoral head is a devastating disease in young patients and remains a challenge for clinicians and researchers alike. To increase understanding of the disease and produce effective treatments that preserve a patient's native hip, an animal model that mimics the disease process in humans, including collapse of the femoral head, is essential. Our goal was to create such a bipedal model by surgically inducing osteonecrosis in the femoral heads of chickens. A lateral approach to the proximal femur was used to access the hip, dislocate the femoral head, and sever the periosteal network of blood vessels. At 4, 8, 12, and 20 weeks after surgery, both the left (experimental) and right (control) femoral heads were harvested from 6 chickens for micro-CT and histological analysis.Introduction
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