Defining Minimal Clinically Important Difference After Open Hip Abductor Repair.

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic surgery
• Hip joint biomechanics
• Patient-reported outcome measures

Background:

• Open repair is a common surgical treatment for gluteus medius and minimus tears causing lateral hip pain.
• Clinically meaningful outcomes after open surgical treatment for abductor tears remain undefined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) after open gluteus medius or minimus repair.
• To identify preoperative patient characteristics predictive of achieving MCID postoperatively.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of prospectively collected data from 47 patients undergoing open abductor repair.
• Preoperative and postoperative modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and International Hip Outcome Tool (iHOT-33) were analyzed.
• Paired t tests and multivariate logistic regression were used to determine MCID and predictive factors.

Main Results:

• Statistically significant improvements in mHHS and iHOT-33 were observed postoperatively (P < .001).
• The MCIDs were determined to be 9.9 for mHHS and 14.3 for iHOT-33.
• Over 80% of patients achieved MCID for both outcome measures; younger patients were less likely to achieve MCID.
• A low complication rate of 8.5% was reported.

Conclusions:

• This study established MCID values for mHHS and iHOT-33 in patients with hip abductor tears.
• A high percentage of patients (>80%) experienced meaningful outcomes following open abductor repair.
• Younger patient age was associated with a lower likelihood of achieving MCID.