Six-Month Outcome Scores Predicts Short-Term Outcomes After Hip Arthroscopy

To determine whether early patient-reported outcome improvements in the 6 months after surgery are predictive of achieving a patient acceptable symptomatic state (PASS) at 2 years.

A prospectively collected database was retrospectively reviewed. Inclusion criteria included patients ≥18 years of age, Tönnis grade 0 or 1 changes, radiographic imaging consistent with femoroacetabular impingement or labral pathology, a primary diagnosis of symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement for which they underwent primary hip arthroscopy, and baseline, 6-month, and 2-year modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) scores. Revision cases were excluded. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted to determine whether 6-month change in mHHS was a predictor for achieving PASS at 2 years.

There were 173 patients (mean age: 39.8, 61.8% female) included within the study. Patients who do not achieve the minimal clinically important difference (MCID), defined as a change of 8 points in mHHS, by 6 months (n = 21) tended to have significantly lower mHHS scores at 1 year and 2 years compared with those who did (n = 152). Only 52% of patients who did not achieve MCID by 6 months achieved MCID by 2 years (vs 98% for those that did) and only 24% achieved PASS by 2 years (vs 88% that did). Using the MCID as a cutoff for improvement in mHHS at 6 months results in a 96% sensitivity but 47% specificity for predicting PASS achievement at 2 years. Using 24 points of improvement in mHHS as a cutoff at 6 months improves sensitivity and specificity to 81% and 80%, respectively.

Early improvement in mHHS scores is associated with 2-year outcomes. Patients who do not achieve MCID within 6 months of surgery have a high rate of not achieving PASS at 2 years.

IV, case series study.