Osteonecrosis

Description: Osteonecrosis bespeaks bone death. Synonyms include aseptic necrosis, bone necrosis, avascular necrosis, bone infarction and ischemic necrosis. By convention, the terms "aseptic" or "avascular" necrosis have been applied to areas of juxtaarticular involvement and the term bone infarct is usually applied to metaphyseal or diaphyseal involvement. However, this terminology is not applied consistently throughout the literature, and I feel that these are largely artificial distinctions. I prefer to simply use the single term 'osteonecrosis' and to apply it to areas of bone infarction, no matter where in the bone they occur.