About Perthes

As a child I suffered from a disease called Perthes Disease. I spent four years in a wheel chair and then a year of rehabilitation to walk again after I was told that I would never walk, or play football again. Perthes' disease is a condition of the hip which occurs in some children (around 1 in every 20,000). It was first described in 1910 by three separate doctors and so it is sometimes called Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease after each of these doctors.

The problem occurs in the femoral head. This is the rounded top of the femur (the thigh bone) which sits inside the acetabulum (the hip socket). Something happens to the small blood vessels which supply the femoral head with blood. So, parts of the femoral head lose their blood supply. As a result, the bone cells in the affected area die and so the bone 'softens', and can fracture, break up, and become distorted. The severity can vary.

It is not clear why this blood vessel problem occurs in the femoral head. It is not due to injury, or to a general blood vessel problem. A child with Perthes' disease is usually otherwise well. Over several months the blood vessels grow, and the blood supply returns to the 'dead' bone tissue. New bone tissue is then laid down and the femoral head re-grows and remodels over several years. This is similar to how bone reforms and remodels after any 'normal' fracture or break to a bone, but takes longer.

On Friday 27th January 2006 I was re-diagnosed with Perthes. After attending hospital this year, the doctors have now determined that I have a problem a little more serious than Perthes. I have major complications in the way that my hip formed after having Perthes, and there is nothing medical that can permanently fix this. I'm lined up for surgery this year, to hopefully stop some of the constant pain I feel. I'm still waiting on finding out the date for my operation.

More Information

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