Avascular necrosis is a disease in which the blood supply to a particular bone ceases. This can cause serious consequences, on the bones. Bones are not just made up of non-living tissue. However, they also consist of living part as well, which requires a blood supply. Avascular necrosis may lead to death of these tissues, which may lead to the collapse of the whole bone.

The basic reason for development of Avascular necrosis is damage to the arteries or veins, which carry blood to the bones. There are a number of things, which can cause such damage to the arteries or veins.  It may be caused because of the intake of toxic substances as alcohol steroids, drugs, etc. The damage can also take place because of radiation or physical injuries. It may also be caused because of the diseases as caisson disease trauma, vascular compression, hypertension, thrombosis, vasulitis etc.

Most commonly Avascular necrosis affects the joints like the joints of shoulder hip and knee. The tips of the long bones in these joints are the target sites for Avascular necrosis. However, this also can occur in the other bones as well. Moreover, Avascular necrosis can occur to only one of the bones or it can also occur to a number of bones at a same time. The people between the ages of 30 to 50 are the ones who are more prone to Avascular necrosis. However, this does not mean that, it will not occur to the people of other age groups.

The patient who has developed Avascular necrosis experiences pain during moving the affected joints or the bones. In some cases as in jaws, Avascular necrosis can be detected just by superficial examination. However, in most of the cases the radiological methods are to be used to detect it. X-rays are helpful only in the advanced stages. This is because there are hardly any changes in the structure of bones. So, bone scintigraphy and MRI are used.

For treating Avascular necrosis the treatments as replacement of the affected joint or bones, grafting, osteotomy, core decompression, etc, are widely used. All these are surgical procedures in which the whole affected part or the affected regions are replaced.
Thus, there is no method, which can correct affected part. However, medications can relieve the patient from pain and inflammation for some time. Nevertheless, eventually surgery will be required at some point or the other.