LOW DOSE CT SCAN FOLLOWING PERIACETABULAR OSTEOTOMY: ASSESSMENT OF REDUCTION AND CORRELATION WITH RADIOGRAPHIC MEASURES

INTRODUCTION: Periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) has become a favored treatment for symptomatic acetabular dysplasia worldwide. Nevertheless, the parameters for optimal correction to avoid residual instability or iatrogenic impingement have not been defined. PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were (1) to assess the ability of PAO to correct femoral head coverage to normal ranges as measured by 3D CT scan and (2) to determine if postoperative radiographic parameters of dysplasia are accurate markers of optimal acetabular correction. METHODS: A total of 43 hips (in 38 patients, mean 27.7 years, 88.4% female) were enrolled in this prospective cohort study at minimum 1 year after PAO. Postoperative femoral head coverage was assessed via low-dose CT and compared to normative data of asymptomatic hips from the literature. Anterior (3:00-1:15), lateral (1:00-11:00), and posterior (11:25-9:00) sector coverage was defined by averaging the coverage at 15 minute increments in each zone. Postoperative radiographs were utilized to measure lateral center edge angle (LCEA), anterior wall index (AWI), posterior wall index (PWI), and anterior center edge angle (ACEA). Good correction for each sector was defined as coverage from 1 SD below mean to 2 SD above mean. RESULTS: Postoperatively, the anterior sector was normalized in 84% of hips, lateral sector in 84% of hips, and posterior sector in 86% of hips. Sixty-seven percent of hips were corrected to normative range in all three sectors and 19% were corrected in two sectors (86% in at least two sectors). LCEA and PWI showed the highest correlation with lateral and posterior sector coverage with Pearson’s correlation coefficients of 0.67 and 0.71 (p < 0.001), respectively. Weaker correlations were found between anterior coverage and the AWI and ACEA coverage (-0.16 and 0.15, respectively). Good correction was best correlated with the following target values for acetabular correction: LCEA 28°, AI 1°, AWI 0.37, ACEA 32°, and PWI 1.0. CONCLUSION: PAO can effectively normalize femoral head coverage compared to normative data. Good correction of each sector coverage ranged from 84-86% of cases. The proposed set of radiographic parameter targets were found to be reliable markers of femoral head coverage.