A systematic review including 30 studies with a total of 1 082 subjects was abstracted in DARE. The most significant finding was that, with an average follow-up time of 42 months, core decompression was 23% more successful than conservative treatment for hips with Steinberg stage I AVN. This statistically-significant difference of 23% should be interpreted cautiously.
The success rates for surgical core decompression were 84, 63 and 29% for Steinberg stages I, II,and III, respectively. Conservatively- treated patients with stage 0, I, II and III AVN demonstrated success rates of 86, 61, 59 and 25%, respectively.
There were 33 (5%) complications in the 688 cases reported in the 13 studies. Reported complications were intertrochanteric fracture (n=14), technical errors in surgery (n=6), seromas and wound infections (n=8), femoral head fractures (n=3), deep vein thrombosis (n=1) and pulmonary embolus (n=1).