Treatment of anterior femoroacetabular impingement with combined hip arthroscopy and limited anterior decompression.

Anterior femoroacetabular impingement results from abnormal abutment of the anterolateral femoral head-neck junction with the anterior acetabular-labral complex resulting in pain and progressive hip dysfunction. This under-recognized problem could be the manifestation of acetabular or proximal femoral deformity, and when left untreated leads to the development of osteoarthritis of the hip. Conservative treatment is usually unsuccessful and the optimal surgical treatment for these disorders needs to be determined. We present our technique for treating femoral (cam) impingement which combines hip arthroscopy and a limited open anterior head-neck osteoplasty as a less invasive and more conservative surgical approach, which still adequately addresses the anatomy and pathophysiology of this disease.