Ossification of the LCF

Illustration:

Left: X-ray of the hip joint (1); our designations: brown arrow – ossification of ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF); yellow arrow – thin articular cartilage in the lower sector of the femoral head and acetabulum; lig.IF – ligamentum iliofemorale; lig.teres – LCF.

In the center: cross-section of the hip joint (2); our designations: black arrow – the space of the acetabulum notch, and the thin layer of cartilage of the head of the femur; lig.IF – ligamentum iliofemorale; lig.teres – LCF.

Right: MRI of the hip joint (2); our designations: white arrow – the space of the acetabulum notch, and the thin layer of cartilage of the head of the femur; lig.IF – ligamentum iliofemorale; lig.teres – LCF.

A comment:

There is a thin layer of cartilage of the femoral head and acetabulum in the lower hemisphere of the hip joint. In our opinion, this is a consequence of the greater force of pressing the articular surfaces against each other. Ossification of part of the LCF is an extremely rare occurrence and indirectly indicates its damage. The rigid, continuous LCF cannot move with the head of the femur.

References:

1) Rosinsky PJ. Direct message, Aug.16,2020. [twitter.com]

2) Cerezal L, Kassarjian A, Canga A, Dobado MC, Montero JA, Llopis E, Pérez-Carro L. Anatomy, biomechanics, imaging, and management of ligamentum teres injuries. Radiographics. 2010;30(6):1637-51. [pubs.rsna.org]

Keywords:

ligamentum capitis femoris, ligament of head of femur, ligamentum teres, ossification, anatomy…

. .

Translated from Russian in collaboration with ChatGPT (version 3.5, developed by OpenAI) and the Google Translate service.

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