Patient-Reported Outcomes and Survivorship Are Not Different for Primary Hip Arthroscopy Patients of Age 50 Years and Older Compared With a 20- to 35-Year-Old Matched Cohort at Minimum 5-Year Follow-Up

Purpose: To assess clinical outcomes among patients aged 50 years or older after primary hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) with or without labral tears compared with a matched control group of younger patients aged 20 to 35 years old at minimum 5-year follow-up.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective comparative prognostic study using a prospectively collected database of patients who underwent hip arthroscopy with minimum 5-year follow-up. Subjects completed the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and Non-Arthritic Hip Score (NAHS) before surgery and at 5-year follow-up. Patients aged ≥50 years were propensity score matched on sex, body mass index, and preoperative mHHS to controls aged 20 to 35 years. Pre- to postoperative changes in mHHS and NAHS were compared between groups using the Mann-Whitney U test. Hip survivorship rates and minimum clinically important difference achievement rates were compared between groups using the Fisher exact test. P values <.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: In total, 35 older patients (mean age 58.3 years) were matched to 35 younger controls (mean age 29.2 years). Both groups were mostly female (65.7%) and had equal mean body mass index (26.0). Acetabular chondral lesions of Outerbridge grades III-IV were more prevalent in the older group (older 28.6% vs younger 0%, P < .001). Five-year reoperation rates were not significantly different between the groups (older 8.6% vs younger 2.9%, P = .61). There were no significant intergroup differences in 5-year improvement in mHHS (older 32.7 vs younger 30.6, P = .46) or NAHS (older 34.4 vs younger 37.9, P = .70) or in 5-year minimum clinically important difference achievement rates for the mHHS (older 93.6% vs younger 93.6%, P = 1.00) or NAHS (older 87.1% vs younger 96.8%, P = .35).

Conclusions: There are no significant differences in reoperation rates and patient-reported outcomes between patients aged ≥50 years versus matched controls aged 20 to 35 years after primary hip arthroscopy for FAI.

Level of evidence: Level III, retrospective comparative prognostic study.