Hip Arthroscopy in Recreational Athletes: Risk Factors For Failure to Return to Sport and Factors That Influence Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport

Abstract

Objective:

High level athletes achieve high rates of return to play and improved patient reported outcomes (PROMs) after hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). However, few studies have evaluated return to sport rates in recreational athletes, risk factors for failure to return to sport, and the effect of psychological readiness to return to sport (RTS) within this population. We hypothesize that recreational athletes undergoing hip arthroscopy for FAI achieve high PROMs and rates of RTS and that psychological readiness is a risk factor for failure to RTS. Additionally, we hypothesize that male athletes and younger age are positively associated with psychological readiness to RTS.

Methods:

Retrospective review of prospectively collected data in our institution's Center for Hip Pain and Preservation Outcomes Registry identified recreational athletes with a minimum of 12 months follow-up, who underwent hip arthroscopy for FAI between 2008-2018. The primary outcome was RTS. The secondary outcomes were ---Hip-RSI (SF) score, modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), Hip Outcome Score Activities of Daily Living (HOS-ADL), Hip Outcome Score Sport (HOS-Sport), and International Hip Outcome Tool (iHOT33).

Results:

84.8% of recreational athletes returned to sport with 70.52% returning to the same level of play. Athletes who failed to RTS were younger (p-value=0.0427), last participated 9-12 months prior to surgery (32.26%) or had stopped participating in sports altogether (70.97%) (p-value=0.0002 and p-value=0.0013). Hip-RSI Score was a statistically significant predictor of failure to RTS at one and two years respectively (OR 0.915 (95%CI 0.87, 0.962) and OR 0.904 (95%CI 0.818, 0.999)). Increasing age had a positive effect on psychological readiness to RTS (0.5004-point increase in RSI score (p-value=0.0002)) while sex, BMI, additional ipsilateral surgery, and last participation in sport were not predictive of psychological readiness (p-values>0.05).

Conclusions:

Recreational athletes undergoing hip arthroscopy achieve high rates of RTS, return to the same level of play, and demonstrate significant improvements in PROMs. The Hip-RSI-score was a statistically significant predictor of failure to RTS at 1 and 2 years post operatively. Lastly, higher psychological readiness for return to sport was seen in older recreational athletes undergoing hip arthroscopy for FAI.