Systematic Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Mar 18, 2019; 10(3): 145-165
Published online Mar 18, 2019. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v10.i3.145
Aetiology of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease: A systematic review
Vito Pavone, Emanuele Chisari, Andrea Vescio, Claudio Lizzio, Giuseppe Sessa, Gianluca Testa
Vito Pavone, Emanuele Chisari, Andrea Vescio, Claudio Lizzio, Giuseppe Sessa, Gianluca Testa, Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele, University of Catania, Catania 95100, Italy
Author contributions: Pavone V, Chisari E and Testa G contributed equally to the work; Chisari E conceptualized and designed the review together with Vescio A and Testa G carried out the analysis; Lizzio C and Sessa G drafted the initial manuscript; All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Vito Pavone, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, Section of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University Hospital Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele, University of Catania, Via Plebiscito 628, Catania 95100, Italy. vpavone@unict.it
Telephone: +3-909-53782273 Fax: +3-909-53782700
Received: November 2, 2018
Peer-review started: November 2, 2018
First decision: November 29, 2018
Revised: December 6, 2018
Accepted: January 10, 2019
Article in press: January 10, 2019
Published online: March 18, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease is a complex disease affecting the epiphysis of the femoral head in the paediatric population. Historically considered an osteochondrosis, it is now being referred to as an idiopathic avascular necrosis of the femoral head in the paediatric population. Despite the aetiology of the disease having been widely researched, it is still not fully understood. The major hypothesis relies on a multifactorial genesis involving mechanical, genetic and systemic conditions. Further studies are necessary to understand the complex and multifactorial genesis of the avascular necrosis characterizing the disease.