Does hip preservation surgery prevent arthroplasty? Quantifying the rate of conversion to arthroplasty following hip preservation surgery

Hip arthroscopic surgery for femoroacetabular impingement and periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) for dysplasia is the most commonly used contemporary treatment for these conditions and has been shown to provide pain relief and restore function. What is less understood and perhaps of more interest to health economists, is the role of these procedures in preserving the hip joint and avoiding hip arthroplasty. The aim of this systematic review was to determine whether hip joint preservation surgery, indeed, preserves the hip joint by looking at conversion rates to total hip arthroplasty (THA). Two separate searches were undertaken, using PRISMA guidelines and utilizing PubMed and Open Athens search engines, identifying manuscripts that looked at conversion to THA following either hip arthroscopy (HA) or PAO. When considering HA, we found 64 eligible papers. Out of these studies, there were 59 430 hips with 5627 undergoing conversion to THA (9.47% [95% CI 9.23–9.71%]) with a mean conversion time of 24.42 months. Regarding PAO, there were 46 eligible papers including 4862 patients who underwent PAO with subsequent conversion to THA in 404 patients (8.31% [95% CI 7.54–9.12%]). with a mean conversion time of 70.11 months. Certain features were associated with increased conversion rates, including increasing age, worsening arthritis and joint space <2 mm. This study demonstrates that the mean conversion rates to be <10% for HA and PAO, during the mean follow-up periods of included manuscripts. Joint preserving surgery appears to defer or at least delay the need for THA.