OBJECTIVETo evaluate the clinical efficacy of Gufusheng capsule (GFSC) in treating early stage Legg-Calve-Perthes disease.

METHODSAdopting randomized single controlled trial, 45 cases with Legg-Calve-Perthes disease in early stage were randomly divided into 2 groups, 23 patients in the control group were treated with arthrectomy hip synovial membrane excision of affected lateral, femoral head decompression and transplantation of muscle-bone flap from ileum, above treatment were also given to the 22 patients in the treated group but combined with orally taking of GFSC. The treatment course for both groups was 6 months.

RESULTSShort-term effect after 6 months' treatment showed that the total effective rate in the treated group and the control group was 90.9% and 78.3% respectively, and the excellent rate was 72.7% and 60.9% respectively. The pain visual analogue scoring, clinical symptom and syndrome scoring markedly decreased before and after treatment, showing significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Long-term effect after 1-year to 4-year follow-up showed that the total effective rate and excellent rate between the treated group and the control group was significantly different ( chi2 = 8. 5976, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONGFSC has marked effect in alleviating pain and ameliorating function of hip joint, being an effective compound recipe for treatment of early stage Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. Therefore, it is worthy of researching and developing furthermore.