Hip Preservation Surgery in Patients With Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome and Acetabular Dysplasia Improves Functional Measures and Pain Catastrophizing

Background Chronic hip pain is a debilitating condition that severely reduces one's quality of life. Prior studies uncovered a link between hip pathologies and pain catastrophizing, anxiety, and depression. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether hip preservation surgery in patients with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) and acetabular dysplasia (AD) improves functional outcomes and pain catastrophizing. Methods Patients with FAIS and AD were requested to complete a hip questionnaire both preoperatively and postoperatively at a single academic center (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA). Pain catastrophizing was evaluated using the pain catastrophizing scale, and pain level was assessed using the visual analog scale. Assessments of hip functional outcomes included the hip outcome score (HOS) and the hip disability and osteoarthritis outcome score (HOOS). Outcome measures before and after treatment were compared using the dependent samples t-test. A correlation analysis, using the Spearman partial correlation coefficient (rs), was conducted to evaluate the relationship between variables. Results The results indicated a clinically significant improvement in functional measures and pain catastrophizing in patients who underwent hip preservation surgery. The most significant discovery was an inverse relationship between both HOOS quality of life (rs=-0.293, p=0.0065, false discovery rate (FDR)=0.0210) and HOS activities of daily living (rs=-0.242, p=0.0254, FDR=0.0423) and pain catastrophizing; however, similar improvements were seen in pain catastrophizing with improvements in other functional outcomes. Conclusion Undergoing hip preservation surgery for patients with AD or FAIS improved their hip functional measures and decreased pain catastrophizing postoperatively. The improvement of hip function, quality of life, and pain catastrophizing reveals an intricate link between the functional outcomes of hip preservation surgery and pain catastrophizing.