Arthroscopic labral repair versus selective labral debridement in female patients with femoroacetabular impingement: A prospective randomized study

Purpose: The purpose of this prospective randomized study was to compare the outcomes of arthroscopic labral repair and selective labral debridement in female patients undergoing arthroscopy for the treatment of pincer-type or combined pincer- and cam-type femoroacetabular impingement. Methods: Between June 2007 and June 2009, 36 female patients undergoing arthroscopic hip treatment for pincer- or combined-type femoroacetabular impingement were randomized to 2 treatment groups at the time of surgery: labral repair or labral debridement. The repair group comprised 18 patients with a mean age of 38; the debridement group comprised 18 patients with a mean age of 39. All patients underwent the same rehabilitation protocol postoperatively. At a minimum of 1 year, all patients were assessed using a validated Hip Outcome Score (HOS) to determine hip function, and also completed a simple subjective outcome measure. Results: All 36 patients were available for follow-up at an average time of 32 months (range, 12 to 48). In both groups, HOSs for activities of daily living (ADL) and sports improved significantly from before surgery to the final follow-up (P <.05). The postoperative ADL HOS was significantly better in the repair group (91.2; range, 73 to 100) compared with the debridement group (80.9; range, 42.6 to 100; P <.05). Similarly, the postoperative sports HOS was significantly greater in the repair group (88.7; range, 28.6 to 100) than in the debridement group (76.3; range, 28.6 to 100; P <.05). Additionally, patient subjective outcome was significantly better in the labral repair group (P =.046). Conclusions: Arthroscopic treatment of femoroacetabular impingement with labral repair in female patients resulted in superior improvement in hip functional outcomes compared with labral debridement. In addition, a greater number of patients in the repair group subjectively rated their hip function as normal or nearly normal after surgery compared with the labral debridement group. Level of Evidence: Level I, prospective randomized study.