Survey the Effect of Hyaluronic Acid Injection in the Prevention of Hip Osteonecrosis in Dog

Femoral neck fracture following osteonecrosis is a common problem. Recently, some reports implicated the success of using hyaluronic acid (HA) in prevention of cartilaginous destruction, and the potential ability of HA in prevention of osteochondronecrosis. To determination the effect of intra- articular HA injection after femoral neck osteotomy In this observational study, 20 dogs were followed after femoral neck osteotomy fixed with pins. The dogs were randomly divided in two groups. Case group received 10 cc HA and control group received 10 cc of normal saline in two doses with 1 week interval. The substances were injected into the hip joint. The dogs were sacrificed after 8 weeks; the osteochondronecrosis were investigated by MRI and pathology. Data were analyzed using Fisher’s exact test and independent t test. P<0.05 was considered as significant. One dog died before research completed in both groups. Osteochondronecrosis was seen in 2 dogs in case group and 5 dogs in control group (p<0.15). Although there was no significant difference between two groups but HA injection decreased the incidence of osteochondronecrosis 2.2 fold (RR=2.2). Positive Predictive Value(PV) and Negative Predictive Value(NPV) for MRI were 33.3% and 58.3% in diagnosis of osteonecrosis. It seems that HA injection is efficient in prevention of osteochondronecrosis after femoral neck osteotomy.