Femoroacetabular impingement in professional football: return to play and predictors of the length of the professional career after hip arthroscopy

Multiple studies in the past have shown that hip arthroscopy is a highly effective treatment for symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement in a wide range of athletes. The rate of return to play and the length of the professional career after hip arthroscopy in professional footballers is, however, unknown. A study was therefore carried out to determine how many athletes returned to professional football and the number of seasons they played after surgery.
The study included 51 professional footballers who underwent hip arthroscopy between 2000 and 2014 by a single surgeon. Return to play was defined as taking part in one regular football match of the sporting season.
It was found that in 87% of the arthroscopic procedures the athletes were able to return to play. The athletes who returned to play had an average of 38 matches over 3.2 seasons after hip arthroscopy and a mean sporting career length of 7.4 seasons. 92% of the athletes who returned had a minimum total career length of three years.
Hip arthroscopy for the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement and the associated pathological abnormalities in professional footballers returned athletes to competition at high rates. The findings of the study show that 87% of the arthroscopic procedures allowed the professional athletes to return to football matches, while performing the microfracture technique did not affect that return. These data show that hip arthroscopy is an effective surgical technique for the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement and the associated pathological abnormalities in the professional footballer, and this information is very important when counselling athletes in cases of femoroacetabular impingement.
Source: “American Journal of Sports Medicine”, April 2017