Improvement in hip symptoms and in patient satisfaction after arthroscopy has been the subject of continuous study over the past 20 years. There is an ongoing search to determine how the severity of femoroacetabular impingement, the extent of the tear of the labrum and even the stage of osteoarthritis relate to the long-term outcome after hip arthroscopy.
A new study set out to determine the survivorship and the durability of the improvement in clinical symptoms after hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement, 11 years after surgery.
Data were collected from patients who underwent hip arthroscopy between March 2003 and May 2012 and were reviewed retrospectively. All the patients had a follow-up of at least 10 years postoperatively and were assessed with the Hip Outcome Score and Non Arthritic Hip Score hip outcome scores, and the results were analysed statistically.
95 patients were included, with a mean follow-up of 11.8 years. The overall rate of total hip arthroplasty was 24.2% at a mean of 3.4 years. 3.2% of patients required a further joint preservation procedure. The survival rate of the hips in these patients at 10 years was 72.6%.
The investigators concluded that hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome gave durable results, with an acceptable rate of conversion to total hip arthroplasty and sustained clinical improvement. Of the patients whose native hip was preserved, 91.3% were satisfied. Tonnis grade 2 or higher degeneration of the hip, findings of significant damage at the junction of the labrum and the articular cartilage on MRI and lower preoperative function were strongly associated with an unacceptable outcome after hip arthroscopy.
Source: "Arthroscopy", June 2025