Postoperative Imaging in Femoroacetabular Impingement

Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) has been recognized as a common cause of pain, limited range of motion, and development of early osteoarthritis of the hip in adolescents and adults. Current surgical approaches include femoral osteochondroplasty, acetabular rim resection, and reattachment of torn labrum as either open surgical or arthroscopic techniques as well as periacetabular osteotomy. Conventional radiographs are routinely obtained in the postoperative setting. In addition, MRI serves for work-up in patients with persistent or recurrent groin pain after surgery. Inappropriate correction of the underlying femoral or acetabular osseous abnormality, insufficiency fractures of the femoral neck due to bone resection, intra-articular adhesions, ongoing joint degeneration including advanced cartilage damage, iatrogenic cartilage injury, retear of the labrum, rarely avascular necrosis of the femoral head, defects of the hip joint capsule, or heterotopic ossification might be observed after surgery for FAI.