The Danish hip arthroscopy registry (DHAR) for patients with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI)

The data of national registries potentially represent a large amount of population-based epidemiological information drawn from multiple centres and surgeons. The outcome data may therefore be more reliable for particular surgical procedures. Taking it as given that surgeons and patients comply with the data-entry process, a registry provides information on patients’ functional outcomes and on the effect of different surgical techniques and implants. The Danish hip arthroscopy registry began operating in January 2012 as a prospective, web-based database. Four years later a record was made of three years of data, that is from 2012 to 2015, in order to assess and report the first outcome information from a population with radiological and clinical signs of femoroacetabular impingement who had undergone hip arthroscopy. The hypothesis of this study was that patients who underwent hip arthroscopy would show significant improvement in pain, quality of life and sport-related measures.
Radiological evidence of pincer-type femoroacetabular impingement was taken to be present when the Wiberg angle was > 35°, and of cam-type femoroacetabular impingement when the alpha angle was > 55°. These data were combined with the arthroscopic techniques of osteochondroplasty and of partial resection or repair of the labrum. In all, 2,054 operations for femoroacetabular impingement in 1,835 patients were included. Statistical analysis of the results showed significant improvement at both one and two years postoperatively.
The investigators concluded that patients with femoroacetabular impingement who undergo hip arthroscopy showed a significant reduction in pain, in quality of life and also in function, as well as in sport-related measures, over the two years after hip arthroscopy.
Source: Lund B, Mygind-Klavsen B, Grønbech Nielsen T, Maagaard N, Kraemer O, Hölmich P, Winge S, Lind M. Danish Hip Arthroscopy Registry (DHAR): the outcome of patients with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). J Hip Preserv Surg. 2017 Apr 4;4(2):170-177.