The clinical outcome of chondrolabral-preserving arthroscopic acetabuloplasty for pincer- or mixed-type femoroacetabular impingement: A systematic review.

While preservation and repair of the acetabular labrum are increasingly being recognized as important goals in hip arthroscopy, controversies still exist regarding the clinical outcome of arthroscopic acetabuloplasty with chondrolabral preservation. A systematic review was conducted and implemented by two independent reviewers, who used the MEDLINE/PubMed database and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for their search. These databases were queried with the terms "arthroscopic acetabuloplasty" and "chondrolabral preservation" and "arthroscopic acetabular recession." From the 55 initial studies the reviewers finally chose and assessed five clinical studies which were eligible to their inclusion-exclusion criteria. The reviewed studies included in total 444 patients, mainly young, between 30 and 40 years old. The follow-up evaluation varied between 24 and 41 months, while all studies utilized at least a 24-month final end-point assessment. All five studies illustrated improved outcome with the use of chondrolabral preservation acetabuloplasty without labral detachment. The rate of complications was very low. The different techniques of arthroscopic acetabuloplasty combined with chondrolabral preservation illustrated encouraging results in patients suffering from pincer-type or mixed-type FAI. However, the available clinical evidence was limited and insufficient to establish any superiority of these techniques over the traditional labral detachment and sequential reattachment. In relation to the optimal treatment of FAI without isolated CAM, further research of higher quality is recommended to be conducted in order to lead to definitive conclusions.