This 2003 narrative review by Kelly, Williams, and Philippon catalogues the current indications, surgical techniques, and management principles for hip arthroscopy in athletes, addressing how improved instrumentation and MRI have made previously unrecognized intraarticular hip pathology both diagnosable and treatable.
When a young athlete presents with chronic groin pain, mechanical symptoms (catching, clicking), and a positive flexion-adduction-internal rotation test, think labral pathology — and remember that MR arthrography is meaningfully more sensitive than standard MRI, and that chondral damage will be present in nearly three-quarters of those with confirmed labral tears.
Hip arthroscopy is appropriate after 4 weeks of unremitting symptoms that fail conservative management, but patient selection matters: isolated lesions without advanced chondral disease predict the best outcomes.
This 2003 narrative review by Kelly, Williams, and Philippon catalogues the current indications, surgical techniques, and management principles for hip arthroscopy in athletes, addressing how improved instrumentation and MRI have made previously unrecognized intraarticular hip pathology both diagnosable and treatable.
When a young athlete presents with chronic groin pain, mechanical symptoms (catching, clicking), and a positive flexion-adduction-internal rotation test, think labral pathology — and remember that MR arthrography is meaningfully more sensitive than standard MRI, and that chondral damage will be present in nearly three-quarters of those with confirmed labral tears.
Hip arthroscopy is appropriate after 4 weeks of unremitting symptoms that fail conservative management, but patient selection matters: isolated lesions without advanced chondral disease predict the best outcomes.