In patients with acetabular dysplasia or developmental dysplasia of the hip, the biomechanics of edge loading at the acetabular rim may lead to clinically symptomatic labral tears. The preferred treatment for acetabular dysplasia in most adolescents and young adults, in the absence of significant degenerative joint disease, is a periacetabular osteotomy, which has been shown to improve the longevity of the hip joint. The question of whether or not to treat the labral tear while performing the periacetabular osteotomy was addressed in a retrospective comparitive study.
The authors found no difference in the clinical outcomes or the need for reoperation between patients who underwent concomitant treatment of the labral tear with the periacetabular osteotomy compared to those who underwent periacetabular osteotomy without treatment of the labral tear. Compared with patients who had no labral tear, both groups with the labral tear were slightly more likely to later require treatment of the labrum. The paper, “Do labral tears influence poor outcomes after periacetabular osteotomy for acetabular dysplasia?“, was published in The Bone and Joint Journal.
Hillard T. Spencer, MD 