The Presence of Central Acetabular Osteophytes May Negatively Affect the Outcome After Primary Arthroscopic Therapy of Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome

Abstract

Purpose: To compare short-term follow-up outcomes after primary arthroscopy in femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) patients with untreated central acetabular osteophytes (CAO) to a control group without CAO.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed using data from FAIS patients who had primary arthroscopy between 2017 and 2018. The presence of CAO was confirmed arthroscopically, and there were 2 groups created. The CAO group was 1:1 propensity-score matched to a control group (without CAO) based on age, gender, body mass index (BMI), Tӧnnis grade, symptom duration before surgery, and follow-up time. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as the Hip Outcome Score-Activities of Daily Living (HOS-ADL), International Hip Outcome Tool 12-component form (iHOT-12)，modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), and visual analog scale (VAS) scores were used to evaluate the level of function included. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) and patient acceptable symptomatic state (PASS) were also calculated to determine meaningful outcome improvement. Radiographic measures, performed procedures, complications, and revision surgery were also compared and analyzed for both groups. P values less than .05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: A total of 46 hips with CAO and 46 hips without CAO were propensity matched. At the minimum final follow-up of 2 years, the CAO group had significantly lower HOS-ADL (78.8 vs 85.5; P = .008), iHOT-12 (74.8 vs 79.3; P = .019), and mHHS (78.9 vs 87.2; P = .002) scores, as compared to the CAO group. Furthermore, patients in the CAO group were significantly less likely to achieve the MCID and PASS for the mHHS score (78.3% vs 93.5%; P = .036, 58.7% vs 78.2%; P = .043, respectively). There was no change in the rate of complications (4.3% vs 0%) and revision hip arthroscopy (4.3% vs 2.2%) between the two groups at the final follow-up.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that surgically treated FAIS patients with CAO might experience worse short-term, patient-reported outcomes, as compared with propensity-matched patients without CAO.

Level of evidence: III, case-control study.

Keywords: central acetabular osteophytes; femoroacetabular impingement syndrome; hip arthroscopy; patient-reported outcomes.