Editorial Commentary: Patient Profiling: Identifying Risk Factors That Help Predict Outcomes of Hip Arthroscopy Candidates

Abstract

Hip pain in the young athletic population is often caused by femoroacetabular impingement morphology. If a patient fails conservative management, hip arthroscopy becomes a potential treatment option. Our ability to maximize patient outcomes after hip arthroscopy is directly related to preoperative patient selection, intraoperative technical ability, and attention to detail in the postoperative period. When considering surgery as a therapeutic option, we want to first identify that the pain is truly stemming from the hip. Once the hip is identified as the culprit, then we proceed with the responsibility of discussing pros and cons and risks and benefits to each patient to critically evaluate whether surgical treatment is a viable option. With the explosion of literature in the field of hip preservation, we have recognized certain modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors that aid us in identifying patients who may have difficulty in achieving their functional athletic expectations after surgery.

Biochemical MRI With dGEMRIC Corresponds to 3D-CT Based Impingement Location for Detection of Acetabular Cartilage Damage in FAI Patients

“…48,50 Identification of risk factors could help to predict outcomes of hip arthroscopy. 1,12,34,47,58 Acetabular cartilage damage 12 and femoral chondral defects 58 have been identified as risk factors for inferior outcomes after hip arthroscopy and open FAI surgery. Both could be evaluated with MRI with dGEMRIC; for example, a threshold of acetabular dGEMRIC index below 450 or 400 ms could be used as a threshold for cartilage flaps.…”