Faculty Bibliography

Previous studies suggest a relationship between femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and femoral neck stress fractures (FNSF), due to pathologic biomechanics in the setting of femoral head abutment (cam morphology) and/or acetabular overcoverage (pincer morphology). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between cam or pincer morphology and FNSF, compared to a control group of patients without hip pain. A retrospective review of the electronic medical record at a single institution was queried for patients with FNSF over a 10-year time period from January 2011-2021. These patients were compared to a control group with diagnostic radiographs and a chief complaint that was not hip pain presenting to the institution's emergency department. Hip morphology was evaluated radiographically. A multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate an association between FNSF and cam or pincer morphology. Eighty-three patients with FNSF and a mean age of 38.6 years were compared to 55 healthy controls with a mean age of 35.8 years. Patients in the FNSF group were more often female, white, and had lower BMI. These patients were also more likely to have associated cam morphology (p = 0.010). Binary logistic regression demonstrated a statistically significant independent association between both cam (OR 5.2, p = 0.01) and pincer (OR 4.6, p = 0.022) morphology with FNSF when controlling for demographic variables. Black race and higher BMI were protective factors for FNSF (OR 0.09, OR 0.84, p < 0.01). In summary, radiographic cam morphology, superolateral acetabular overcoverage, female sex, and lower BMI are risk factors for sustaining FNSF, while the black race was found to be protective.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this study was to evaluate patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and survivorship in obese patients undergoing hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) at 10-year follow-up. METHODS:A retrospective review was conducted of patients who underwent arthroscopy for FAIS from 2010-2013. Patients were assessed at baseline, 1 month, 6 months, 1-, 2-, 5-, and 10 years using the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and Nonarthritic Hip Score (NAHS). Patients were categorized based on BMI into normal, overweight, and obese cohorts. Minimal clinically important difference (MCID) and patient-acceptable symptom state (PASS) were calculated for both PROs. Improvements from baseline were analyzed and differences between groups were evaluated while controlling for age. Survival to revision surgery was assessed with Kaplan-Meier survival curves. RESULTS:144 patients (65.2% female) with a mean age of 38.8 ± 13.0 years and an average follow-up of 11.6 (range 10.0-13.8) years were included, and categorized into normal weight (59.7%), overweight (26.4%), and obese (13.9%). All groups showed significant improvement in PROs at 10 years compared to baseline (p=0.007). Obese patients had lower postoperative scores (mHHS: 72.8 vs. 90.1, p=0.009; NAHS: 68.4 vs.. 88.6, p=0.003) and improvement in scores from baseline (mHHS: 23.4 vs. 37.7, p=0.013; NAHS: 18.4 vs. 40.0, p=0.004) at 10-year follow-up, as well as lower achievement of mHHS PASS (60.0% vs 87.2%, p=0.015), NAHS PASS (50.0% vs. 89.5%, p<.001) and NAHS MCID (70.0% vs. 93.0%, p=0.008). Obese patients also had a higher rate of conversion to THA (17.4% vs 3.3%, p=0.012). The overall complication rate was 4.2% compared to 10% in the obese group, with obese patients experiencing a superficial infection more frequently (p=0.002). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Although obese patients still have significantly improved outcomes compared to baseline, at 10-year follow-up they have inferior outcomes compared to nonobese patients and higher rates of conversion to THA. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE/METHODS:Level III, retrospective comparative study.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study is to assess agreement between retrospectively and prospectively collected patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) following hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS). METHODS:Patients undergoing hip arthroscopy from 2021 to 2023 for FAIS completed preoperative PROMs, including the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and the Non-Arthritic Hip Score (NAHS). Post-operatively, patients were surveyed and asked to recall their preoperative hip function. Paired two-sample t tests were used to compare baseline and recalled baseline PROMs and the difference between scores was compared to previously published minimally clinically important difference (MCID) values. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to test the reliability between scores based on a single-rater, two-way mixed-effects model. Multivariable regression, accounting for age, sex and preoperative baseline scores, was used to evaluate the relationship of time elapsed since surgery with recall accuracy. RESULTS:A total of 116 patients (age: 37.6 ± 11.8 years; 61.2% female) were included. The mean time elapsed for recalled data was 13.1 months (range: 1-27 months). Overall, patients' recalled scores were significantly lower than those prospectively collected (mHHS: 52.9 ± 20.1 vs. 61.5 ± 18.5, p < 0.0001; NAHS: 54.7 ± 20.0 vs. 58.8 ± 19.1, p < 0.0001). Frequency distribution found 68.1% of recalled mHHS and 61.2% of NAHS scores to have a greater difference (between baseline and recalled scores) than the MCID. The ICC was moderate for both mHHS (ICC = 0.559, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.420-0.672], p < 0.001) and NAHS (ICC = 0.612, 95% CI = [0.484-0.714], p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis did not find time elapsed since surgery to be associated with the difference between baseline and recalled mHHS (n.s.) or NAHS (n.s.). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:There are significant differences between retrospective and prospectively collected PROMs in patients undergoing hip arthroscopy that are not predicted by time to recall. These findings should impact the interpretation of the existing literature, support the routine collection of prospective data and inform patient counsel regarding their perceived post-operative outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE/METHODS:Level IV.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to assess the inter-rater reproducibility and inter-method comparability of hip alpha angle measurements on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/magnetic resonance arthrography (MRA) and plain radiographs in patients with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS). METHODS:A cross-sectional study of patients who were diagnosed with symptomatic FAIS underwent preoperative MRI/MRA with axial oblique and/or radial plane imaging and had preoperative radiographs with anterior-posterior (AP), 45° Dunn and 90° Dunn views. Alpha angle measurements were performed independently by two musculoskeletal radiologists. Inter-rater reproducibility and inter-method comparability between MRI/MRA images and radiographic views were assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) with 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS:Ninety-seven patients were included of whom 93 (95.8%) received axial oblique plane images and 54 (55.6%) had radial plane MRI/MRA images. Inter-rater reproducibility was excellent (ICC > 0.9) for all planes on MRI/MRA and radiographs. MRI/MRA axial oblique images had poor (ICC 0.39, 95% CI [0.09, 0.59]), moderate (ICC 0.57, 95% CI [0.18, 0.75]) and moderate (ICC 0.64, 95% CI [0.20, 0.81]) comparability with AP, 45° Dunn and 90° Dunn, respectively. MRI/MRA radial plane images had equivocal (0 included in all CIs) comparability with AP (ICC 0.66), 45° Dunn (ICC 0.35) and 90° Dunn (ICC 0.14) radiographs. On average, alpha angle measurements were significantly higher with radial images and lower with axial oblique images, when compared to all radiographic views (p < 0.05), except axial oblique versus 45° Dunn views, where angles measured on axial oblique were significantly larger. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Alpha angle measurements taken on axial oblique MRI/MRA images show moderate comparability to radiographic 45° Dunn and 90° Dunn views despite negative bias to measurements taken on radiographic AP and 45° Dunn view. Larger alpha angles were appreciated on MRI/MRA radial and axial oblique views compared to radiographic views supporting the inclusion of MRI/MRA alpha angle measurements to properly identify deformity. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE/METHODS:Level II.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:This study aims to evaluate patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and reoperation rates in patients undergoing primary hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) over a minimum 10-year follow-up stratified by sex, age, and body mass index (BMI). METHODS:Primary hip arthroscopies performed for FAIS between 2010 and 2013, with a minimum 10-year follow-up, were reviewed. Procedures consisting of microfracture, or labral debridement without repair, were excluded. Ten-year PROs were assessed using the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and Non-Arthritic Hip Score (NAHS). Patients were categorized into three groups by age (<30, 30-44, >45 years) and BMI (<25.0, 25.0-29.9, ≥30). Minimum clinically important difference (MCID) was set to half the preoperative standard deviation of the cohort. Reoperation rates and PROs were compared, and regression analysis identified independent predictors of PROs. RESULTS:At minimum 10-year follow-up (mean: 11.6 [10.0-13.9] years), 59.2% follow-up was achieved, representing 154 hips (141 patients). The cohort had a mean age of 38.5 years, BMI of 24.4, and was 68.2% female. At follow-up, 91.6% of the cohort achieved MCID with a 9.7% re-operation rate. In the middle-aged group, males had higher mHHS (mean, 92.8 vs. 85.2, P = 0.015) and NAHS (mean, 91.6 vs. 83.4, P = 0.008) scores compared to females. In the BMI ≥30 group, males had higher mHHS (mean, 83.3 vs. 66.4, P = 0.030) and NAHS scores (mean, 83.0 vs. 58.5, P = 0.035). Only 72.7% of females with BMI ≥30 achieved MCID for mHHS and NAHS, compared to BMI < 25 (96.6% and 94.9%, respectively) and 25-29.9 (87.5% and 83.3%) (mHHS: P = 0.016; NAHS: P = 0.038). Similarly, 78.8% of females aged ≥ 45 achieved MCID for NAHS, compared to 92.9% of those aged < 30 and 97.1% of those 30-44 (P = 0.040). Multivariable regression identified older age (mHHS: P=0.019; NAHS: P=0.042) and higher BMI (mHHS: P=0.007; NAHS: P<0.001) as independently predictive of worse 10-year PROs. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Older age and greater BMI independently predicted poorer long-term functional outcomes after hip arthroscopy for FAIS. Female sex, while not independently predictive, may make patients more susceptible to the negative effects of older age and BMI. No significant association was observed for reoperation rates. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE/METHODS:Level IV, retrospective therapeutic case series.

Compared with total hip arthroplasty, hip arthroscopy is a relatively new procedure and, as such, hip-spine syndrome in young adults is an emerging topic of research. In the past decade, our understanding of spinopelvic alignment has improved the stability and survivorship of hip replacements in patients with prior lumbar fusions. Obviously, the hip affects the spine and the spine affects the hip. In terms of hip arthroscopy, just as older patients and patients with cartilage damage have inferior outcome, patients with spine pathology are at risk for post-operative worsening spinal symptoms, including sciatica. In addition, back and radicular pain may limit post-operative hip rehabilitation. Yet, other patients show resolution of back symptoms after hip arthroscopy. Today, surgeons indicating hip arthroscopy must first investigate patient sagittal balance which includes pelvis tilt, pelvic incidence and sacral slope. When properly indicated, hip-spine pain patients show greater percentage improvement with no increased failure risk compared to patients with isolated FAIS. Exceptions include patients with concomitant lumbar stenosis or lumbar fusion. rate of revision hip arthroscopy and conversion for total hip replacement is two-fold compared to controls if patients had prior 1-2 level fusion and three-fold if 3 or more levels are fused. Our understanding of hip-spine patients with regard to arthroscopy outcomes continues to develop. In addition to a comprehensive spine exam, the patient's spine surgical history and current spine symptoms must be investigated in order to predit the efficacy of hip arthroscopy. If patients have both hip and spine symptoms, a diagnostic hip injection to determine the prime pain generator is essential. If the hip is the source of pain, patients should be counseled that back symptoms will likely improve after hip arthroscopy but not in all cases. EOS imaging to measure sagittal balance may allow the surgeon to predict if impingement measurements on hip x-rays may be underestimated in the setting of a stiff spine. If the patient has multiple risk factors for poor outcomes such as advancing age, articular cartilage damage, borderline dysplasia, hypermobility, on top of a history of multilevel lumbar fusion or spinal deformity, hip arthroscopy may not be ideal and hip arthroplasty should be considered. Clearly, the spine may not be ignored in patients with FAIS.

Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is a cause of hip pain and can lead to hip osteoarthritis. Radiological measurements obtained from radiographs or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are normally used for FAI diagnosis, but they require time-consuming manual interaction, which limits accuracy and reproducibility. This study compares standard radiologic measurements against radiomics features automatically extracted from MRI for the identification of FAI patients versus healthy subjects. Three-dimensional Dixon MRI of the pelvis were retrospectively collected for 10 patients with confirmed FAI and acquired for 10 healthy subjects. The femur and acetabulum were segmented bilaterally and associated radiomics features were extracted from the four MRI contrasts of the Dixon sequence (water-only, fat-only, in-phase, and out-of-phase). A radiologist collected 21 radiological measurements typically used in FAI. The Gini importance was used to define 9 subsets with the most predictive radiomics features and one subset for the most diagnostically relevant radiological measurements. For each subset, 100 Random Forest machine learning models were trained with different data splits and fivefold cross-validation to classify healthy subjects versus FAI patients. The average performance among the 100 models was computed for each subset and compared against the performance of the radiological measurements. One model trained using the radiomics features datasets yielded 100% accuracy in the detection of FAI, whereas all other radiomics features exceeded 80% accuracy. Radiological measurements yielded 74% accuracy, consistent with previous work. The results of this preliminary work highlight for the first time the potential of radiomics for fully automated FAI diagnosis.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:Proximal hamstring tears may present with neurological dysfunction due to compression or stretching of the sciatic nerve. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of hamstring repair with concurrent sciatic nerve neurolysis for clinical outcomes and patient symptoms. METHODS:A retrospective chart review of patients who were diagnosed with hamstring injury at a large tertiary care institution was conducted. Patients with chronic tears (> 6 weeks from injury to surgery) who underwent hamstring repair were reviewed for demographics, clinical variables including symptoms of sciatic neuritis, sciatic nerve abnormalities on MRI, and postoperative outcomes. Chi-square tests were used for categorical variables, t test for continuous variables. Pairwise t tests were used to compare average pre- and postoperative strength for patients with and without symptoms of sciatic neuritis. RESULTS:Thirty-two patients with chronic hamstring tears were included in the analysis. Patients were 59.4% female with an average age of 51.4 years (SD 13.1). Preoperatively, 27 patients (84.4%) were noted to have symptoms of sciatic neuritis. These patients did not differ in age (p = .677) or sex (p = .374) from patients without preoperative symptoms. Sciatic nerve abnormalities were noted on MRI report in 7 patients who had sciatic nerve symptoms and 0 patients who did not have sciatic nerve symptoms. Symptomatic improvement was seen in 21/26 (81%) of patients who had preoperative neurological symptoms, and in 6/7 (86%) of patients with MRI findings. All patients had equivalent or improved strength postoperatively. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:A sciatic nerve neurolysis is a safe and effective procedure to perform on patients with preoperative sciatic nerve symptoms and chronic hamstring tears that leads to improvement in neurological symptoms and strength. In neurologically asymptomatic patients with chronic hamstring injuries and MRI findings indicating possible nerve damage, a discussion should be held about the risks and benefits of performing a sciatic nerve neurolysis.

BACKGROUND:Hip pain due to femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is thought to adversely impact sexual satisfaction because of exacerbation of symptoms with hip ROM. However, the effect of FAI on sexual satisfaction and improvement after surgery to treat FAI is largely absent from published studies, despite patients' apparent interest in it as registered by the frequent appearance of these topics on online anonymous discussion platforms. In addition, details regarding its impact on the decision to pursue surgery and the success of hip arthroscopy in alleviating FAI-related sexual dysfunction based on the specific role assumed during intercourse (penetrative versus receptive) remains unknown. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES/OBJECTIVE:Given that sexual intercourse involves different amounts of hip ROM depending on whether patients assume the penetrative or receptive role, this study evaluated the effect of FAI and hip arthroscopy on sexual activity based on role. Compared with patients who participate in the penetrative role during sexual intercourse, do patients who participate in the receptive role (1) experience greater difficulty with sexual function because of FAI symptoms, (2) take longer to return to sexual intercourse after hip arthroscopy, and (3) experience greater improvements in reported sexual function after hip arthroscopy for FAI? METHODS:This was a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing hip arthroscopy for FAI. Between January 2017 and December 2021, 293 patients were treated with hip arthroscopy for FAI and enrolled in our longitudinally maintained database. Among all patients treated surgically, 184 patients were determined to be potentially eligible for study inclusion based on a minimum follow-up of 6 months postoperatively. The 6-month timepoint was chosen based on published data suggesting that at this timepoint, nearly 100% of patients resumed sexual intercourse with minimal pain after hip arthroscopy. Of the potentially eligible patients, 33% (61 patients) could not be contacted by telephone to obtain verbal consent for participation and 9% (17 patients) declined participation, leaving 106 eligible patients. Electronic questionnaires were sent to all eligible patients and were returned by 58% (61 patients). Forty-two percent of eligible patients (45) did not respond to the questionnaire and were therefore excluded from the analysis. Two percent (2) completed most survey questions but did not specify their role during intercourse and were therefore excluded. The mean age of included patients was 34 ± 9 years, and 56% were women The mean follow-up time was 2 ± 1 years. In total, 63% of included patients reported participating in the receptive role during sexual intercourse (49% receptive only and 14% both receptive and penetrative). Hip symptoms during sexual intercourse preoperatively and postoperatively were evaluated using a questionnaire created by our team to answer our study questions, drawing from one of the only published studies on the matter and combining the questionnaire with sexual position-specific questions garnered from arthroplasty research. Patients who reported participating in the receptive role during intercourse (either exclusively or in addition to the penetrative role) were compared with those who participated exclusively in the penetrative role. There were no specific postoperative recommendations in terms of the timing of return to sexual intercourse, other than to resume when comfortable. RESULTS:Overall, 61% of patients (36 of 59) reported that hip pain somewhat or greatly interfered with sexual intercourse preoperatively. Patients who participated in receptive intercourse were more likely to experience preoperative hip pain that interfered with intercourse than patients who participated exclusively in penetrative intercourse (odds ratio 5 [95% confidence interval 2 to 15]; p < 0.001). Postoperatively, there was no difference in time until return to sexual activity between those in the penetrative group (median 6 weeks [range 2 to 14 weeks]) and those in the receptive group (median 6 weeks [range 4 to 14 weeks]; p = 0.28). Postoperatively, a greater number of patients participating in the penetrative role reported no or very little pain, compared with patients participating in the receptive role (67% [14 of 21] versus 49% [17 of 35]). However, with regard to preoperative to postoperative improvement, patients who participated in the receptive role had greater pain with positions involving more hip flexion and abduction and experienced a greater improvement than their penetrative counterparts in these positions postoperatively. Despite this improvement, however, 33% of patients (7 of 21) participating in the penetrative role and 51% of patients (18 of 35) participating in the receptive role continued to report either some or a great amount of pain at final follow-up. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Hip pain secondary to FAI interferes with sexual relations, particularly for partners who participate in the receptive role. Postoperatively, both patients participating in receptive and penetrative intercourse resumed sexual intercourse at a median of 6 weeks. After hip arthroscopy, the greatest improvement in pain was seen in receptive partners during sexual positions that involved more hip flexion and abduction. Despite this improvement, most patients, regardless of sexual role assumed, reported some degree of residual pain. Patients planning to undergo arthroscopic surgery for FAI, particularly those who participate in receptive intercourse, should be appropriately counseled about reasonable postoperative expectations based on our findings. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE/METHODS:Level III, therapeutic study.