Incidence and prognosis of coxarthrosis. 1964

To define radiographic criteria, the radiographs of all patients diagnosed with coxarthrosis during the year 1951 were reviewed. Structural or joint space changes, evident radiographically in one of every seven cases in 1951, persisted at the time of the review in 1962. In the remaining cases, the diagnosis had been based upon the presence of osteophytic changes alone. Only one of 86 such cases reviewed in 1962 had structural or joint space changes. Osteophytes had no clinical significance and did not progress to coxarthrosis. Osteophytes appear to be a part of normal age changes. The radiographic diagnosis of coxarthrosis must be based on the demonstration of structural or joint changes. The natural history of coxarthrosis was studied by observing the course of the disease over a ten-year period in all patients (168) with primary and secondary disease diagnosed during the five-year period, 1950-1954. About one in nine cases in this series was classified as secondary, and the sexes were equally well represented. The occurrence of bilateral disease in one third of the patients strongly suggested that primary coxarthrosis is a disease sui generis. Four out of ten patients died within ten years of diagnosis of the disease.