The Patient Acceptable Symptomatic State for the Modified Harris Hip Score and Hip Outcome Score Among Patients Undergoing Surgical Treatment for Femoroacetabular Impingement

Background: There is minimal information available on the threshold at which patients consider themselves to be well for patient-reported outcome measures used in patients treated with hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI).

Purpose: To determine the patient acceptable symptomatic state (PASS) for the modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and the Hip Outcome Score (HOS) in patients with FAI treated with arthroscopic hip surgery.

Study design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2.

Methods: A consecutive series of patients at a single institution with FAI who were treated with arthroscopic labral surgery, acetabular rim trimming, and femoral osteochondroplasty were eligible. The mHHS (score range, 0-100) and the HOS (score range, 0-100) were administered at baseline and at 12 months postoperatively. An external anchor question at 1 year postoperatively was utilized to determine PASS values: "Taking into account all the activities you have during your daily life, your level of pain, and also your functional impairment, do you consider that your current state is satisfactory?"

Results: There were 130 patients (mean ± SD age, 35.6 ± 11.7 years), and 42.3% were male. Based on a receiver operator curve analysis, the PASS values-at which patients considered their status to be satisfactory-at 1 year after surgery were 74 (mHHS), 87 (HOS-activities of daily living subscale), and 75 (HOS-sports subscale). The PASS threshold was not affected by baseline scores across different instruments. However, patients with higher baseline scores were more likely to achieve the PASS (odds ratios: 3.36 [mHHS], 3.83 [HOS-activities of daily living], 3.38 [HOS-sports]). Age and sex were not significantly related to the odds of achieving the PASS for the mHHS or the HOS.

Conclusion: This is the first study to determine the PASS for 2 commonly used hip joint patient-reported outcome measures in patients undergoing surgery for FAI. The study findings can allow researchers to determine if interventions related to FAI are meaningful to patients at the individual level across various domains and will also be useful for responder analyses in future randomized trials related to hip arthroscopy and the treatment of FAI.