The diagnostic and predictive value of hip anesthetic arthrograms in selected patients before total hip arthroplasty.

Concurrent osteoarthritis of the hip and lumbar spine occurs frequently. Our study tests the hypothesis that hip anesthetic arthrograms can be used as predictive diagnostic tool before total hip arthroplasty when standard evaluation techniques fail to provide convincing evidence of the source of pain. Thirty-four consecutive hip anesthetic arthrograms were reviewed retrospectively. Quantified outcome measures included Visual Analog Pain Score, Harris Hip Score, and patient satisfaction. The pain relief after hip anesthetic arthrogram accurately predicted pain relief after hip arthroplasty (positive predictive value = 95.23%, negative predictive value = 87.5%). Our study supports the selected use of hip anesthetic arthrograms in the preoperative assessment of patients with concurrent hip and lumbar spine osteoarthritis associated with nondiagnostic history and physical examinations.