Return to Sport After Hip Arthroscopy: Aggregate Recommendations From High-volume Hip Arthroscopy Centers

Abstract

Hip arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgical technique often performed in athletes who want an expeditious return to sport. To the authors' knowledge, no studies in the literature provide a time frame or criteria for return to sport after hip arthroscopy. The purpose of this study was to develop an aggregate recommendation for return to sport after hip arthroscopy based on data assimilated from high-volume hip arthroscopy centers. Twenty-seven orthopedic surgeons from high-volume hip arthroscopy centers completed a survey regarding return to sport after hip arthroscopy. The questionnaire asked surgeons to give a time frame for return to sport and to choose meaningful criteria that an athlete must meet prior to return to sport. Surgeons were asked to categorize various common sports as high, medium, or low risk with regard to the hip. The aggregate results were used to create standardized recommendations for time, criteria, and risk for return to competitive sports. Regarding time frame for return to sport, 70% of surgeons recommended 12 to 20 weeks. In addressing criteria for return to sport, 85% of surgeons recommended that patients need to be able to reproduce all motions involved in their sport without pain. A majority of surgeons recommended criteria of pain-free running, jumping, lateral agility drills, and single-leg squats. Finally, surgeons categorized sports requiring the most movement and impact of the hip joint (football, basketball, wrestling, and martial arts) as high-risk sports. Sports with less impact on the hip, such as golf, were ranked as low risk.

Preoperative Predictors of Achieving Clinically Significant Athletic Functional Status After Hip Arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement at Minimum 2-Year Follow-Up

“…Additional factors influencing return to sport include the sport type, level of competition, and severity of the intra-articular hip damage. 14 This information demonstrates that a multitude of factors contribute to patient outcomes and return to sport, which also highlights the complexity in predicting these outcomes. Therefore, a detailed understanding of the predictors of both superior and inferior outcomes of athletic function after arthroscopic surgery for FAIS is imperative for treating surgeons.…”

Hip arthroscopy protocol: expert opinions on post-operative weight bearing and return to sports guidelines

“…The questionnaire was delivered via email to 34 hip surgeons identified as high volume hip surgeons. Based on the previous work of Domb et al, high volume hip surgeons were defined as those who perform a minimum of 50 hip arthroscopies a year [12]. This survey took into account hip arthroscopists renown for the volume of hip scopes they perform each year and more importantly, for their distinguished and established positions in the academic field of hip scopes as they are all very active members of scientific community such as ISHA (board members and committee directors) ISAKOS (Hip and groin committee) and ESSKA (Hip committee members).…”

Patients With Chondrolabral Pathology Have Bilateral Functional Impairments 12 to 24 Months After Unilateral Hip Arthroscopy: A Cross-sectional Study

“…17 While the side bridge does not measure pelvic control in the sagittal plane, it may be a surrogate measure of overall trunk endurance, and our findings might suggest that trunk muscle performance bilaterally is an important target reconstruction, 14,16 although hopping tests do not yet have reported validity in a post-hip arthroscopy population. 26 It has been reported that some patients have achieved return to sport between 12 and 20 weeks postsurgery, 12 while up to 75% of patients have returned to sport by 12 months. 4 Our study indicates that significant impairments still exist in single hopping on both sides 12 to 24 months following hip arthroscopy.…”