Dr. Timothy K. Durnin - 9/6/2007

Question
Hi Dr. Durnin,
I have avascular necrosis in all 12 joints..due to massive doses of steriods for breathing problems.. I already have 1 hip replaced and the other femur tibia and knee cap are dying, the femur from the knee up is dead 5 inches up the femur..my question is this.. how and can they do a knee replacement with this much bone dead? will a normal lenght knee replacement be long enough? I am so confused to what they can do for this leg..one doctor talked about taking out the whole femur and inserting a metal rod to replace because of the likelihood of the femur still dying even after the replacements..Hip and Knee..thank you so much for replying..I know this is a rare and difficut problem ..I am a rare case, even having the 2 metatarsal base in my right hand  dying..no known report of this in the history of avascular necrosis.. once again..thank you for any information you can give me.. Judy in KY

Answer
Hi Judy,

Many people taking prednisone unchecked get multiostotic necrosis, the key is get on a different med and off the steroids for awhile. This is one of those, "the cure is worse than the disease" situations. Get another pulmonologist that uses other drugs or you won't have any bones left.

The surgeon is correct, the rate bone is dying, he might as well replace as much as he can, but the obvious answer is to get rid of that terrible drug!

Dr. Timothy Durnin