Editorial Commentary: Nonoperative Management Is the First Line of Treatment for Hip Femoroacetabular Impingement in Adolescents: Children Are Not Little Adults!

Abstract

Adult patients undergoing hip arthroscopy who experience preoperative symptoms for a longer duration have worse outcomes postoperatively compared with those symptomatic for a shorter duration. Ongoing femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) may lead to worse damage that may not be fully reparable and could be used as evidence for early surgery. However, the same reasoning may not be applicable to adolescents for whom nonoperative treatment remains the first line of treatment for FAI. Many newly symptomatic FAI patients may actually have biomechanically treatable pathology of their hip, core, or spine, making their FAI symptomatic, and if these biomechanical factors can be corrected, the FAI may become asymptomatic. Patients with low pelvic incidence are "hip users" who compensate for their pelvic issue by increasing hip range of motion, making them more prone to symptomatic FAI and leading to degenerative changes from impingement. Only after failure to improve after a full course of physical therapy is established should adolescent patients and parents be counseled on hip arthroscopy as an appropriate treatment option.