Capsular Repair Is Associated With Lower Revision Rates Yet Similar Clinical Outcomes and Arthroplasty Conversion 5 Years After Hip Arthroscopy: A Systematic Review

To perform a systematic review of studies reporting on minimum 5-year outcomes of patients undergoing primary hip arthroscopy (HA) for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) to determine whether capsular management influences patient-reported outcomes (PROs), rates of clinically significant outcome, and rates of revision surgery or conversion to total hip arthroplasty (THA).PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched around the terms hip arthroscopy, FAIS, five-year follow-up, and capsule management. Articles available in English, presenting original data, and reporting minimum 5-year follow-up after HA using either PROs or conversion to THA or revision surgery were included. Quality assessment was completed using MINORS assessment. Articles were stratified into unrepaired and repaired capsule cohorts (excluding periportal capsulotomy techniques).Eight articles were included. MINORS assessment ranged from 11-22, with excellent (k = 0.842) inter-rater reliability. Populations without capsular repair were identified in 4 studies including a total of 387 patients, at an age of 33.1 to 38.0 years and follow-up range of 60.0 to 77 months. Populations with capsular repair were identified in 5 studies including a total of 835 patients, at an age range of 33.6 to 43.1 years and follow-up range of 60.0 to 78.0 months. All studies included PROs and all reported significant improvement (P < .05) at the 5-year timepoint, with modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) being the most frequent (n = 6). No differences were noted between groups regarding any of the measured PROs. Average rates of achieving MCID and PASS for mHHS were similar between patients without capsular repair (MCID 71.1%, PASS 73.7%, n = 1) and with capsular repair (MCID 66.0%-90.6%, PASS 55.3%-87.4%, n = 4). Conversion to THA occurred in 12.8% to 18.5% and 0.0% to 29.0% for patients with an unrepaired and repaired capsule, respectively. Revision HA occurred in 15.4% to 25.5% and 3.1% to 15.4% in unrepaired and repaired capsular patients, respectively.Patients undergoing hip arthroscopy for FAI had significant improvement in PRO scores at minimum 5-year follow-up, and scores did not differ between patients who underwent capsular repair and those who did not. Similar rates of markers of clinical benefit and THA conversion were achieved by both groups; however, lower rates of revision hip arthroscopy were demonstrated in the capsular repair cohort.Level IV; systematic review of Level II-IV studies.