Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2025 Jan 2;59(2):109-117.
doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2023-107712.

Medium-term results of arthroscopic hip surgery compared with physiotherapy and activity modification for the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome: a multi-centre randomised controlled trial

Antony Palmer  1 , Scott Fernquest  2 , Ines Rombach  1 , Alice Harin  1 , Ramy Mansour  3 , Susan Dutton  1 , H Paul Dijkstra  4   5 , Tony Andrade  6 , Sion Glyn-Jones  1 ; FAIT Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations
Free article
Randomized Controlled Trial

Medium-term results of arthroscopic hip surgery compared with physiotherapy and activity modification for the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome: a multi-centre randomised controlled trial

Antony Palmer et al. Br J Sports Med. .
Free article

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: To report a 3-year follow-up from the FemoroAcetabular Impingement Trial, comparing arthroscopic surgery with physiotherapy in the management of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) syndrome for the dual primary outcomes of radiographic hip osteoarthritis (OA) and patient-reported outcome measures of activities of daily living.

Methods: Two-group parallel, assessor-blinded, pragmatic randomised controlled trial across seven sites. 222 participants aged 18-60 years with FAI syndrome confirmed clinically and radiologically were randomised (1:1) to receive arthroscopic hip surgery (n=112) or physiotherapy (n=110). Dual primary outcome measure was minimum joint space width (mJSW) on anteroposterior radiograph at 38 months post-randomisation and Hip Outcome Score ADL (HOS ADL) (higher score indicates superior outcomes). Secondary outcome measures were Scoring Hip Osteoarthritis with MRI (SHOMRI) (lower score indicates less pathology).

Results: mJSW, HOS ADL and MRI data were available for 45%, 77% and 62% of participants at 38 months, respectively. No significant difference in mJSW was seen between groups at 38 months. HOS ADL was higher in the arthroscopy group (mean (SD) 84.2 (17.4)) compared with the physiotherapy group (74.2 (21.9)), difference 8.9 (95% CI 7.0, 10.8)). SHOMRI score total at 38 months was lower in the arthroscopy group (mean (SD) 9.22 (11.43)) compared with the physiotherapy group (22.76 (15.26)), differences (95% CIs) -15.94 (-18.69, -13.19).

Conclusions: No difference was seen between groups on radiographic measures of OA progression. Patients with FAI syndrome treated surgically may experience superior pain and function outcomes, and less MRI-measured cartilage damage compared with physiotherapy.

Trial registration number: NCT01893034.

Keywords: Hip.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare support from Arthritis Research UK and NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre for the submitted work. There was independence between the researchers and funders. Unrelated to the submitted work, VK received support from Stryker and Smith and Nephew for educational consultancy, TA received support from Stryker, Smith and Nephew, and Zimmer Biomet for lectures, and SG-J received research grants and fees for lectures from Zimmer Biomet, Corin, and ConMed, and research grants from Neurotechnics, Johnson and Johnson, and Siemens.

MeSH terms

Associated data