Quantitative MRI Evaluation of Articular Cartilage Using T2 Mapping Following Hip Arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement

OBJECTIVES: Cam-type femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) causes a shearing and delamination injury to the acetabular articular cartilage due to a mismatch between the size of the femoral head and the acetabulum. This mechanism is thought to lead to early osteoarthritis in this population. Cam decompression has been advocated to eliminate impingement, with the ultimate goal of halting the progression of articular cartilage delamination. Although outcomes following this procedure in the young adult population have been favorable at short and medium term follow up, it is not known whether the articular cartilage itself is protected from further injury by changing the biomechanics of the joint with decompression of the cam morphology. The purpose of this study is to compare the pre- and post-operative integrity of the acetabular articular cartilage using T2 mapping to determine if hip arthroscopy is protective of the articular cartilage at short- to medium term follow up. METHODS: Males between 18 and 35 years of age who had pre-operative T2 mapping MRIs, underwent hip arthroscopy for cam or mixed-type FAI with an alpha angle greater than 50°, and had at least 2 year follow-up were identified. Post-operative MRIs were performed and T2 relaxation times in the transition zone and weight bearing articular cartilage in the anterosuperior acetabulum at deep and superficial chondral layers were recorded at nine points on three sagittal sequences on pre and post-operative MRIs. A paired t-test was used to compare T2 relaxation values between pre-operative and post-operative scans. RESULTS: Eleven hips were evaluated. Mean age was 26.3 years (range 21 - 35). Mean follow up time to post-operative T2 mapping MRI was 2.6 years (range 2.4 - 2.7). The change in T2 relaxation time was not significantly different between pre- and post-operative MRI scans for any of the nine regions in the deep zone of the acetabular cartilage (p=0.065 - 0.969) or the superficial zone of the acetabular cartilage (p= 0.133 - 0.966). CONCLUSION: There was no significant progression of acetabular cartilage degeneration as measured by structural collagen organization and integrity on T2 mapping from pre-operative imaging to the time of two year follow up. Based on this data, it appears that hip arthroscopy for decompression of cam- type FAI slows or halts the process of cartilage degeneration caused by the mechanical wear known to occur in cam-type FAI which is associated with progression to osteoarthritis.