Crutch use for 4 weeks vs. 1 week after hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement: A pseudorandomized clinical trial with 6-month follow-up
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The purpose of our study was to compare patient-reported outcomes at 6-month follow-up between primary hip arthroscopy patients who were partial weight bearing on crutches for 4 weeks vs. 1 week postoperatively. METHODS: We conducted a pseudorandomized clinical trial involving patients who underwent arthroscopic treatment of femoroacetabular imipingement at a single center from September 2020 to April 2021. Subjects aged 18-65 years old were alternately assigned to one of the 2 rehabilitation regimens involving either 4-week or 1-week partial weight bearing on crutches. Subjects completed the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and Nonarthritic Hip Score (NAHS) surveys before surgery and at 6-month follow-up. Achievement of the minimum clinically important difference (MCID), substantial clinical benefit (SCB), and patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) was assessed using published mHHS cutoff values. Outcomes were compared between groups with the Mann-Whitney U test and analysis of covariance, while MCID, SCB, and PASS rates were compared with the Fisher exact test. P-values < .05 were considered significant. RESULTS: Fifty patients were included in the study of whom 28 (56.0%) were assigned to 4-week crutch use and 22 (44.0%) to 1-week crutch use. The 4-week crutch use group was significantly older on average (38.4 vs. 32.1 years, P = .03) and had significantly higher mean body mass index (27.6 vs. 24.5, P = .01), but there were no significant baseline differences between the 2 groups (P > .05). After adjusting for age and body mass index, there was no significant difference in preoperative to postoperative improvement in mHHS (P = .43) or NAHS (P = .46) between the 2 groups at 6-month follow-up. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in achievement rates for MCID (P = .50), SCB (P = .51), or PASS (P = .77) between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: We identified no significant differences in improvement of mHHS and NAHS or achievement of the MCID, SCB, or PASS at 6-month follow-up between patients on crutches for 4 weeks vs. 1 week postoperatively. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II, Pseudorandomized clinical trial.
Institutions: NYU Langone Health, New York University
Language: English
Topic: Hip disorders and treatments
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7117420331
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