OrthoSpineNews reports on an HSS retrospective study published in the October 8, 2020 edition of the American Journal of Sports Medicine evaluating how the phenomenon of sacralization (also known as lumbosacral transitional vertebrae [LSTV]) affects the outcomes of hip arthroscopy (HA).

The researchers reviewed the prospectively collected Hip Arthroscopy Database at HSS for patients with LSTV who had hip arthroscopy between 2010 and 2017. They identified 62 patients with LSTV and then matched them to controls. A variety of patient-reported outcome measures were collected at four different time points. Researchers compared patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) between patients undergoing HA with and without LSTV. In addition, they compared outcomes based on LSTV type.

The researchers wrote, “Preoperatively, there was no significant difference between patients with and without LSTV on 3 of the 4 PROMs; however, patients with LSTV did have significantly lower preoperative scores than controls for the Hip Outcome Score–Activities of Daily Living. Patients with LSTV reported significantly lower scores on all 4 PROMs at each postoperative time point. Radiographic data showed no significant difference in alpha angles across cohorts. When LSTV were compared by Castellvi type, types 3 and 4 tended to have lower scores than types 1 and 2; however, these comparisons were not significant.”

“This is the first paper to show that people with spine pathology have inferior outcomes than people with normal spines but still have some improvement with surgery,” said HSS sports medicine surgeon and study coauthor Anil S. Ranawat, MD. “Although patients benefit from the procedure, the benefits are limited, and this is similar to the outcome of patients with spine pathology and total hips as well.”

Read the full text article at OrthoSpineNews.com.