The accuracy of two clinical tests for ischiofemoral impingement in patients with pain in the posterior region of the hip and an endoscopically confirmed diagnosis

In this article, published in the American journal “Arthroscopy”, the authors set out to determine the accuracy of the long-stride walking test and the ischiofemoral impingement test in diagnosing ischiofemoral impingement in patients whose main symptom is pain in the posterior region of the hip.
Cases were identified of patients with confirmed ischiofemoral impingement, and also cases in which ischiofemoral impingement had been excluded on the basis of imaging, injections and endoscopic assessment, combined with a reduction in pain and negative specific tests for ischiofemoral impingement after treatment. Demographic data, the duration of symptoms, the site of the pain, the ischiofemoral space, the quadratus femoris space, oedema of the quadratus femoris, intraoperative findings and the visual analogue scale for pain were calculated and recorded, before and after treatment, in all the patients included in this study. The data were also subjected to a thorough statistical analysis.
Cases were included from 1,166 consecutive hip operations, together with the records of 564 consecutive outpatients, which were reviewed retrospectively in order to identify the patients who had undergone an injection or endoscopic surgical treatment for pain in the posterior region of the hip.
The authors concluded that in patients with pain in the posterior region of the hip and no findings suggesting involvement of the lumbosacral spine, the long-stride walking test and the ischiofemoral impingement sign have a high degree of accuracy in identifying patients with ischiofemoral impingement.
Source: "Arthroscopy", July 2016