Background: Dysplastic hip may present with acetabular retroversion with or without femoral retroversion. This retroversion, if not accounted for when performing a periacetabular osteotomy (PAO), will lead to anterior hip pain and early osteoarthritis. A reverse PAO involves anteverting the acetabulum while still obtaining lateral coverage. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between rotational malalignment of acetabulum and femur on 2-dimensional computed tomographic (CT) scans of hips that underwent Bernese PAO and its role in the surgical decision making.
Methods: This retrospective, case-control study examined and compared preoperative 2-dimensional CT scans of hips that underwent reverse PAO to the hips that underwent traditional PAO.
Results: Twelve hips underwent reverse PAO from 2005 to 2010. Twelve hips were randomly selected from a cohort of 52 hips that underwent traditional PAO during same time period. Hips that underwent reverse PAO showed crossover sign on preoperative radiographs, but not on postoperative radiographs. Crossover sign was negative preoperatively and postoperatively on hips that underwent traditional PAO. The 2 groups were similar in regards to preoperative lateral center-edge angle, acetabular index, and anterior center-edge angle on plain radiographs and showed significant improvement after surgery.On preoperative CT scans both acetabulae and femurs were retroverted in reverse PAO group. Comparison of the 2 groups demonstrated that acetabular version (16.5±4.9 degrees vs. 25.3±5.6 degrees, P=0.001), femoral version (12.8±10.4 degrees vs. 31.9±8 degrees, P<0.001), and McKibbins Instability Index (29.3±11.9 degrees vs. 57.1±9.8 degrees, P<0.001) were significantly lower for the reverse PAO than the traditional PAO group. Anterior Acetabular Sector Angle (determines anterior coverage) was significantly higher in reverse PAO group, 53.1±13.7 degrees versus 39.7±10.4 degrees (P=0.013).
Conclusions: Retroverted acetabulae seem to be associated with reduced femoral version. Given that retroverted acetabulum and retroverted femur have additive effect and increase chances of anterior hip pain, preoperative identification of correct acetabular, and femoral version by CT scan or MRI is necessary to determine which hip need reverse PAO as opposed to traditional PAO.
Level of evidence: Level III-Therapeutic.