Recreational Athletes Return to Sport at a Comparable Rate to Elite Athletes Following Hip Arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the current study was to evaluate patient reported outcomes and return to sport in a cohort of distinctly recreational and amateur level athletes following hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). METHODS: Following IRB approval, clinical data was retrospectively retrieved for 66 consecutive FAI patients (26 men, 40 women) who had undergone hip arthroscopy and identified themselves as recreational or amateur athletes on intake forms. Two-year patient-reported outcomes (PRO) included a sport-specific questionnaire, modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), and Hip Outcome Scores with Activities of Daily Living (HOS-ADL) and Sports-Specific (HOS-SS) subscales were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age and BMI of all subjects was 26.8 ± 7.6 years and 23.9 ± 3.2 kg/m2, respectively. Athletes had withdrawn from sport for an average of 9.5 ± 6.7 months prior to surgery and on average required 9.7 ± 5.1 months to return to sport. After two years, all mean PRO scores had improved significantly (Figure 1), and 57 patients (92%) had returned to play and continued participation. Patients who had withdrawn from sport for greater than 8 months before surgery returned to sport significantly more slowly than those who had withdrawn for less than 8 months (p=0.01). Greater withdrawal from sport prior to surgery also correlated with lower postoperative improvements in HOS-ADL and HOS-SS scores. Bivariate analysis revealed that increasing body-mass index (BMI) was associated with lower improvements in PROs. CONCLUSION: Recreational athletes, following hip arthroscopy for FAI, return to play at a high rate. Increasing BMI and preoperative withdrawal from sport both significantly prolong return to play and diminish two-year PROs. Most return-to-play studies following hip arthroscopy for FAI have focused on professional athletes, with limited generalizability to the average sports medicine surgeon practice. This is the first study of its kind to focus on the recreational athlete and demonstrates comparable return-to-play rates while increasing the generalizability to the average sports medicine practice.