Paper 12: Elite Female Athletes Demonstrate Comparable Improvement in Midterm Patient Reported Outcome Scores and Rate of Return to Sport Compared to Elite Male Athletes After Hip Arthroscopy: A Sex-Based Comparison in Professional and Collegiate Athletes

OBJECTIVES: (1) To report minimum 5-year patient reported outcome scores (PROs) and continuation of sport for elite female athletes undergoing hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) and (2) to compare clinical results with a matched control group of elite male athletes. METHODS: Data on all consecutive elite female athletes who underwent primary hip arthroscopy performed by the senior author (X.X.X.) between March 2009 and March 2016 were collected. Patients were eligible if underwent hip arthroscopy for labral tears or FAI and participated at a collegiate or professional level within 1 year of surgery. Minimum 5-year PROs were collected for the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), Nonarthritic Hip Score (NAHS), Hip Outcome Score-Sport Specific Subscale (HOS-SSS), visual analog scale (VAS) for pain. The rates of patients achieving minimal clinically important difference (MCID) and patient acceptable symptomatic state (PASS) were also recorded. These athletes were propensity-matched to elite male athletes for comparison. RESULTS: Sixty-five elite female athlete hips were included in the study. Elite female athletes had an average follow-up time of 67.6 ± 6.5 and age of 24.3 ± 6.8. When propensity-matched to a control group of elite male athletes, female athletes demonstrated lower preoperative PRO scores and comparable minimum 5-year post-op scores, improvement between preoperative and minimum 5-year scores, and continuation of sport rate. CONCLUSIONS: Elite female athletes undergoing primary hip arthroscopy for FAI demonstrated significant improvement in PROs and high rates of CTS which were similar to a propensity-matched group of elite male athletes.