AVN is considered one of the most dreaded and sinister diseases because it can cause excruciating levels of pain over long durations. Many factors determine how pain will present with AVN, including the stage of AVN advancement, location and size of lesions, and physical fitness of the patient.

At the low end, some patients with early onset AVN only feel pain on par with Arthritis. In fact, many AVN patients are misdiagnosed as having other diseases at first.

Though, in more advanced or severe AVN cases, the common and notable trait of AVN is that it can be one of the most excruciating and debilitating diseases known to modern medicine. In fact AVN pain severity is often ranked very near to the severity of bone cancer. Not only is severe AVN pain extremely unpleasant, but left improperly treated, severe AVN pain can cause permanent nerve and neurological damage.