Objective: To assess whether subchondral drilling of acetabular cartilage flaps during femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) surgery improves (1) acetabular dGEMRIC indices and (2) morphologic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scores, compared with hips in which no additional treatment of cartilage lesions had been performed; and (3) whether global dGEMRIC indices and MRI scores correlate.
Design: Prospective cohort study of consecutive patients with symptomatic FAI treated with open surgery between 2000 and 2007. Patients with subchondral drilling of acetabular cartilage flaps were allocated to the study group, those without drilling to the control group. All patients underwent indirect 3-T MR arthrography to assess cartilage quality by dGEMRIC indices and a semiquantitative morphologic MRI score at minimum 5 years after surgery. dGEMRIC indices and morphologic MRI scores were compared between and among groups using analysis of covariance/paired t tests.
Results: No significant difference was found between the global dGEMRIC indices of the study group (449 ± 147 ms, 95% CI 432-466 ms) and the control group (428 ± 143 ms, 95% CI 416-442 ms; P = 0.235). In regions with cartilage flaps, the study group showed higher dGEMRIC indices (472 ± 160 ms, 95% CI 433-510 ms) compared with the control group (390 ± 122 ms, 95% CI 367-413 ms; P < 0.001). No significant differences were found for the morphologic MRI scores. A strong inversely linear correlation between the dGEMRIC indices and the morphologic MRI scores (r = -0.727, P < 0.001) was observed.
Conclusions: Treatment of acetabular cartilage flaps with subchondral drilling leads to better cartilage quality in regions with cartilage flaps at minimum 5 years of follow-up.
Keywords: MRI; cartilage repair; dGEMRIC; femoroacetabular impingement; hip.