The role of hip arthroscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of hip disease.

Injuries to the hip are commonly encountered by orthopedic surgeons and will, for the most part, respond well to conservative therapy. When a patient's hip pain has not responded to the appropriate treatment and radiographic measurements have not shown any specific pathology, arthroscopy of the hip can be a valuable diagnostic and therapeutic procedure. We retrospectively reviewed 94 consecutive patients who experienced refractory hip pain that persisted longer than 6 months (average: 2.1 years) and who had an average follow up of 2.5 years. Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher's Exact Test (P value) and Pearson (r value) correlation coefficient to compare preoperative symptomatology and physical examination findings with intraoperative pathology. Statistically significant results were obtained when comparing preoperative symptoms of a painful hip click and mechanical symptoms of locking with acetabular labral injuries (P = .000, r = .896) and loose bodies (P = .000, r = .896), respectively. Radiologic studies were nondiagnostic in 76% of patients in this series. Hip arthroscopy can be a valuable and viable procedure in the diagnosis and treatment of protracted or progressive hip pain lasting more than 6 months.