Return to Play After Hip Arthroscopy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) occurs when an osseous abnormality of the proximal femur (cam) or acetabulum (pincer) triggers damage to the acetabular labrum and articular cartilage in the hip. Although the precise etiology of FAI is not well understood, both types of FAI are common in athletes presenting with hip pain, loss of range-of-motion, and disability in athletics. An open surgical approach to decompressing FAI has shown good clinical outcomes; however, this highly invasive approach inherently may delay or preclude a high level athlete’s return to play. The purpose of this study was to define associated pathologies and determine if an arthroscopic approach to treating FAI can allow professional athletes to return to high-level sport. Hip arthroscopy for the treatment of FAI allows professional athletes to return to professional sport. Between October 2000 and September 2005, 45 professional athletes underwent hip arthroscopy for the decompression of FAI. Operative and return-to-play data were obtained from patient records. Average time to follow-up was 1.6 years (range: 6 months to 5.5 years). Forty two (93%) athletes returned to professional competition following arthroscopic decompression of FAI. Three athletes did not return to play; however, all had diffuse osteoarthritis at the time of arthroscopy. Thirty-five athletes (78%) remain active in professional sport at an average follow-up of 1.6 years. Arthroscopic treatment of FAI allows professional athletes to return to professional sport.

Over the last decade, the surgical treatment of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) has evolved as surgical techniques through arthroscopy, open surgical dislocation, and combined approaches have been developed. The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate and compare the clinical results of available surgical approaches for FAI. A review of the literature was performed through the PubMed database and related articles' reference lists. Inclusion criteria were (1) all patients treated for FAI, (2) Level I, II, III, or IV study design, and (3) written in the English language. Case reports and studies involving patients with acetabular dysplasia were excluded. Overall, 1,299 articles fit our keyword search criteria. Of these, 26 articles reported clinical outcomes, using 3 surgical modalities: open surgical dislocation, arthroscopic, and combined approaches. In compiling the data in these articles, we analyzed the outcomes of a total 1,462 hips in 1,409 patients. The most published surgical method was arthroscopy, which included 62% of the patients. Labral repair was performed more frequently in open surgical dislocation (45%) and combined approach (41%) procedures than in arthroscopies (23%). Mean improvement in the modified Harris hip score after surgery was 26.4 for arthroscopy, 20.5 for open surgical dislocation, and 12.3 for the combined approach. A higher rate of return to sport was reported for arthroscopy in professional athletes than for open surgical dislocation. Overall complication rates were 1.7% for the arthroscopic group, 9.2% for the open surgical dislocation group, and 16% in the combined approach group. All 3 surgical approaches led to consistent improvements in patient outcomes. Because a wide variety of subjective hip questionnaires were used, direct comparisons could not be made in many cases, and none of the approaches could be clearly shown to be superior to the others. However, it seems that, overall, the arthroscopic method had the lowest complication and fastest rehabilitation rate. Copyright © 2011 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

We report the results of arthroscopic management of femoroacetabular impingement with 2-year follow-up. All patients undergoing hip arthroscopy were prospectively assessed with the modified Harris Hip Score. Arthroscopic correction of femoroacetabular impingement was first performed in 2003. The cohort of this study consists of the first 100 consecutive cases that had achieved 2-year follow-up. There was 100% follow-up at 2 years. The mean age was 34 years (range, 13 to 76 years), with 67 male and 33 female patients. There were 63 cam, 18 pincer, and 19 combined lesions. Acetabular articular damage was found in 97 cases, femoral damage was present in 23, and there were 92 labral tears. The median improvement was 21.5 points, with 79 good and excellent results. No patient required revision to total hip arthroplasty, but 6 patients underwent a subsequent arthroscopic procedure. There were 3 complications including a transient neurapraxia of the pudendal nerve and a transient neurapraxia of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, which resolved uneventfully, and 1 mild case of heterotopic ossification. We report favorable outcomes for the arthroscopic management of femoroacetabular impingement in our early experience in the first 100 consecutive cases. The high incidence of significant articular damage observed at the time of arthroscopic intervention is concerning. Copyright © 2011 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.