The effect of femoral version on the clinical outcome after hip arthroscopy

There is generally a good deal of evidence in the literature on the particular features of the technique of hip arthroscopy in relation to the anatomy and version of the acetabulum. There is not, however, sufficient evidence on the particular features the technique may have in patients with lesser or greater femoral anteversion. In their study, Jackson et al. sought to compare the clinical outcome after hip arthroscopy in patients with femoral retroversion, with normal femoral version and with excessive femoral anteversion. Patients who underwent hip arthroscopy between 2008 and 2011, in whom femoral version was measured on magnetic resonance imaging, were studied. The patients were divided into three groups: those with retroversion, those with normal version and those with greater anteversion. Data were used from 78 patients who met the inclusion criteria for the study. There were 25 patients in the retroversion group, 219 in the normal version group and 34 in the group with increased femoral anteversion. Most tears of the labrum were seen in the region from the 12 o’clock to the 2 o’clock position, the main difference being at the 3 o’clock position, where fewer tears occurred. The group with marked anteversion showed a lower prevalence of tears (30%) than the retroversion group (73%) and the normal version group (78%). Postoperatively there was a statistically significant difference from the preoperative scores in all three groups and for all the hip outcome scores. On comparing the postoperative scores between the three groups, there was no statistically significant difference between the three groups.
The authors concluded that, on the basis of the patient-reported hip outcome scores, the degree of femoral version does not appear to affect the clinical outcome after hip arthroscopy.