Is There an Association Between Preoperative Expectations and Patient-Reported Outcome After Hip Arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome? Commentary
Patient opinions are a crucial part of understanding how physicians can improve clinical practices. One outcome of this was being able to better understand the relationship between preoperative patient expectations and patient-reported outcomes after hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS). FAIS is a condition in which extra bone grows along the bones that form the hip joint and causes pain as the bones rub against each other during movement. On physical exam, a patient with FAIS will likely have pain during internal rotation of the hip. If nonsurgical management fails, your doctor may recommend hip arthroscopy to treat the pain.
In this study, the authors reviewed data from over 150 patients to analyze their survey responses and quantify their expectations for their hip arthroscopy outcomes. The results demonstrated that higher expectation scores led to greater rates of clinically significant outcome improvement one year after surgery. In other words, patients with greater preoperative expectations of their surgical outcomes were more likely to see clinically significant improvements postoperatively. This is an important for patients to consider prior to surgery. When patients are motivated, stay positive, have a firm belief in their provider and rehabilitation protocol, research shows that they may actually have significant improvement in their symptoms.