External snapping hip syndrome is associated with an increased femoral offset

External snapping hip syndrome (ESH) is postulated to be one of the causes of greater trochanteric pain syndrome, which also includes greater trochanteric bursitis and tendinopathy or tears of the hip abductor mechanism. However, it was not yet described what kind of bony morphology can cause the snapping and whether symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals have different imaging features.

It was the purpose of this study to look for predisposing morphological factors for ESH and to differentiate between painful and asymptomatic snapping.

A consecutive cohort with ESH and available magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) between 2014 and 2019 was identified. The control group consisted of patients that underwent corrective osteotomies around the knee for mechanical axis correction and never complained of hip symptoms nor had undergone previous hip procedures. The following parameters were blindly assessed for determination of risk factors for ESH: CCD (corpus collum diaphysis) angle; femoral and global offset; femoral antetorsion; functional femoral antetorsion; translation of the greater trochanter (GT); posterior tilt of the GT; pelvic width/anterior pelvic length; intertrochanteric width. Hip and pelvic offset indexes were calculated as ratios of femoral/global offset and intertrochanteric/pelvic width, respectively. For the comparison of symptomatic and asymptomatic snapping, the following soft-tissue signs were investigated: presence of trochanteric bursitis or gluteal tendinopathy; presence of surface bony irregularities on trochanter major and ITB (Iliotibial band) thickness.

A total of 31 hips with ESH were identified. The control group (n = 29) consisted of patients matched on both age (± 1) and gender. Multiple regression analysis determined an increased hip offset index to be independent predictor of ESH (r =  + 0.283, p = 0.025), most likely due to the higher femoral offset in the ESH group (p = 0.031). Pearson correlation analysis could not identify any significant secondary factors. No differences were found between painful and asymptomatic snapping on MRI.

A high hip offset index was found as an independent predictor for external snapping hip in our cohort, mainly due to increased femoral offset. No imaging soft-tissue related differences could be outlined between symptomatic and asymptomatic external snapping.

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