Surgical treatment of femoroacetabular impingement: what are the limits of hip arthroscopy?

The variety of hip pathology that can be addressed in a minimally invasive fashion in the young, pre-arthritic patient has rapidly grown in parallel with technical advances in hip arthroscopy. However, the indications and limits of arthroscopy must be carefully defined and indications must evolve correspondingly to avoid an increase in failure rates and unsatisfactory clinical outcomes. Some diagnoses may be better and more comprehensively addressed with open procedures or combined surgical approaches. The purpose of this article is to provide an unbiased and evidence-based review of conditions of the pre-arthritic hip to define our current understanding of the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of an arthroscopic approach.