Published in:
01-09-2012 | In Brief
In Brief: Ficat Classification: Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head
Authors:
Muhammad Umar Jawad, MD, Abdul Ahad Haleem, MD, Sean P. Scully, MD, PhD
Published in:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®
|
Issue 9/2012
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Excerpt
The earliest attempt at classifying avascular necrosis of the femoral head was proposed by Ficat and Arlet in 1964 [
2], before the advent of MRI. The purpose of the classification was to provide prognostic insight and compare treatment options. Ficat modified the classification to include invasive testing procedures and a preclinical, preradiographic stage in 1985 [
1]. Since then the system has been modified a few times to include MRI findings, patient symptoms, modify the description of radiographic findings, and exclude the invasive testing procedures originally described [
13,
17]. In a systematic review of the literature, Mont et al. [
13] identified 16 different classification systems used to classify and describe avascular necrosis. Of these, the Ficat classification [
1,
2] was the most frequently used system (63%), followed by the University of Pennsylvania system [
18] (20%), the Association Research Circulation Osseous (ARCO) system [
4,
15] (12%), and the Japanese Orthopaedic Association system [
7] (5%). …