Destructions of Hip Joint in Rheumatoid Arthritis during Long-Term Steroid Therapy

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Abstract
Summary In the time before steroid therapy it was rare that the hip joints were engaged in the clinical picture of rheumatoid arthritis. Particularly greater destructions and damage were rare, somewhat more often we found osteophyte formations and secondary osteoarthritis. Nowadays it is different. More often we see crippled cases with movement pains and flexion contractures in one or both hip joints. By x-ray examination of such cases we find great osteoporosis and not so seldom big destructions of the femoral head, in some cases intrudance of it deep into the acetabulum and pelvis. If we investigate the cases we find regularly that they have had steroid therapy for a long time. The causes are two: In rheumatoid arthritis we always have more or less osteoporosis. Serial x-ray-examinations from joints in different parts of the body have clearly demonstrated that this progression of joint destruction continues also when the clinical manifestations are well suppressed by steroid administration.