Arthroscopic FAI treatment reveals good, excellent results in most patients at 2-year follow-up

Byrd JWT. Arthroscopy. 2011. doi:10.1016/j.arthro.2011.05.018

Arthroscopic management of femoroacetabular impingement has demonstrated favorable outcomes with a minimum 2-year follow-up in the first 100 consecutive cases investigated by researchers in Tennessee.

J.W. Thomas Byrd, MD, and Kay S. Jones, MSN, RN, prospectively assessed hip arthroscopy cases using the modified Harris Hip Score. The authors began performing arthroscopic correction of femoroacetabular impingement in 2003, taking from this cohort of patients the first 100 who met a minimum follow-up of 2 years.

In all, the study examined 67 male patients and 33 female patients with a mean age of 34 years. This group demonstrated 63 cam, 18 pincer and 19 combined lesions, with acetabular articular damage presenting in 97 cases and femoral damage presenting in 23 cases. There were also 92 labral tears.

Using the modified Harris Hip Score, the authors noted a median improvement of 21.5 points, with 79 results labeled good or excellent. Six patients were reported to have undergone a subsequent arthroscopic procedure, but the authors noted no patients in the cohort required revision to total hip arthroplasty.

However, in their abstract they noted, “The high incidence of significant articular damage observed at the time of arthroscopic intervention is concerning.”