Abstract: 4Introduction: Femoroacetabular impingement is a major cause of early osteoarthritis of the hip, especially in young and active patients. It is characterized by an early pathologic contact during hip joint motion between acetabulum and femur that limits the physiologic hip range of motion,. Depending on clinical and radiographic findings, it can be pincer or cam type. Most patients (86%) have a combination of both forms. The role of imaging in femoroacetabular impingement is to evaluate the hip for abnormalities associated with impingement and to exclude arthritis, avascular necrosis, or other joint problems on radiographs.
Materials and Methods: Between August 2010 and November 2010, 100 radiographs of pelvis with both hips and both hips lateral view of normal subjects were obtained and included in this study. All radiographic parameters of interest in the present study were assessed by three observers including one radiologist. The intraobserver and interobserver coefficients for the various parameters, assessed on a sub-set of fifty radiographs, ranged from 0.90 to 0.98 which was significant. All the 100 sets of 3 x-rays were studied in this manner.
Discussion: The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of femoroacetabular impingement in Indian population. Western countries have a proportionally higher rate of primary osteoarthritis of hip. It is increasingly coming to notice that radiographs of idiopathic osteoarthritis of hip show signs of femoroacetabular impingement. Therefore, there could be a causal association between femoroacetabular impingement and idiopathic osteoarthritis of hip.
Conclusion: Femoroacetabular impingement is recognized condition causing hip pain in young active adults and is believed to be a cause of hip osteoarthritis. Further studies are still required to evaluate the nature of disease process, its natural history, actual cause and effect relationship between femoroacetabular impingement and osteoarthritis.
