CT Arthrography With Traction in Femoro-Acetabular Impingement: How to Do It?

Computed tomography arthrography (CTA) highly correlates with arthroscopy in detecting labral tears, especially in patients with positive impingement tests. CTA enables the acquisition of isotropic datasets with high spatial resolution within a single acquisition. However, the hip is a close-fitting, congruent, and nearly spherical joint, with relatively thin cartilage. We describe herein a simple and cost-effective method using traction for hip CTA, with axial manual distraction, that helps overcome the usual limitations, by widening the articular joint space and thus better delineating both acetabular and femoral cartilages.