Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
Innovations and future research directions on hip preservation management options for osteonecrosis of the femoral head
Valerio Pace, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, “Media Valle del Tevere-Pantalla” Hospital, Pantalla-Todi 06059, Italy
Francesco Pezone, Department of Trauma and Ortopaedics, Vita-Salute San Raffaele Univer
Eduardo De Larrea, Pierluigi Antinolfi, Department of Trauma and Ortopaedics, University of Perugia, Terni 05100, Umbria, Italy
Author contributions: Pace V designed the article; Pace V, Pezone F, De Larrea E and Antinolfi P performed the research and literature review, analyzed data, wrote and finalized the review.
AI contribution statement: In this study, only the language editing function assisted by artificial intelligence was employed for the grammatical checking and style refinement of the manuscript. Any part of the scientific content, including the abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion or conclusion, was not generated by artificial intelligence. No artificial intelligence was used for data analysis, research design, result interpretation or image generation.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Corresponding author: Valerio Pace, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, “Media Valle del Tevere-Pantalla” Hospital, Via del Buda, Pantalla-Todi 06059, Italy.
Received: December 31, 2025
Revised: February 21, 2026
Accepted: May 15, 2026
Published online: July 18, 2026
Processing time: 192 Days and 6.9 Hours
Revised: February 21, 2026
Accepted: May 15, 2026
Published online: July 18, 2026
Processing time: 192 Days and 6.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The past decade has brought substantial advances in hip preservation for Osteonecrosis of the femoral head, particularly through biologically augmented core decompression and innovative implants. Yet high-quality randomized evidence remains sparse, especially for comparative effectiveness across strategies and for long-term survivorship. There is an urgent need for multicenter, stage-stratified trials with standardized outcome measures to refine algorithms that truly balance joint preservation against timely total hip arthroplasty.