Background: To analyse the prevalences of the cam and pincer morphologies in a cohort of patients with groin pain syndrome caused by inguinal pathologies.
Materials and methods: Forty-four patients (40 men and 4 women) who suffered from groin pain syndrome were enrolled in the study. All the patients were radiographically and clinically evaluated following a standardised protocol established by the First Groin Pain Syndrome Italian Consensus Conference on Terminology, Clinical Evaluation and Imaging Assessment in Groin Pain in Athlete. Subsequently, all of the subjects underwent a laparoscopic repair of the posterior inguinal wall.
Results: The study demonstrated an association between the cam morphology and inguinal pathologies in 88.6% of the cases (39 subjects). This relationship may be explained by noting that the cam morphology leads to biomechanical stress at the posterior inguinal wall level.
Conclusions: Athletic subjects who present the cam morphology may be considered a population at risk of developing inguinal pathologies.
Level of evidence: Level IV, Observational cross-sectional study.
Keywords: Cam morphology; FAI syndrome; Groin pain syndrome; Pincer morphology.