Outcomes of endoscopic gluteus medius repair with minimum 2-year follow-up.

Background: Gluteus medius tears may be present in as many as 25% of late middle-aged women and 10% of middle-aged men, and they are often misdiagnosed. Outcomes of endoscopic repair of gluteus medius tears have seldom been reported.

Purpose: To report the early outcomes of endoscopic repair of partial- and full-thickness gluteus medius tears.

Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4.

Methods: Between April 2009 and January 2010, data were prospectively collected for all patients undergoing endoscopic gluteus medius repair by one of the authors. Inclusion criteria for the study were patients undergoing repair for either high-grade, partial-, or full-thickness tears. Only patients with endoscopic evidence of a gluteus medius tear were treated surgically. In the case of an articular-side tear, a transtendinous repair technique was used, whereas in the presence of a full-thickness tear, the tendon was refixated to the bone directly.

Results: A total of 15 patients met the inclusion criteria. The cohort included 14 women and 1 man, with an average age of 58 years (range, 44-74 years). Endoscopically, 6 cases were found to be partial-thickness tears. Nine were either full-thickness tears or near-full-thickness tears, which were completed for the repair. Follow-up was obtained on all patients at an average of 27.9 months postoperatively (range, 24-37 months). Fourteen of the 15 patients showed postoperative improvement in all 4 hip-specific scores used to assess outcome, with an average improvement of more than 30 points for all scores. Satisfaction with the surgery results was reported to be from good to excellent (scores of 7-10 out of 10) in 14 of 15 patients.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that endoscopic surgical repair, whether performed through a transtendinous or full-thickness technique, can be an effective treatment of gluteus medius tears at a minimum follow-up of 2 years. Longer term follow-up studies are necessary to determine whether these therapeutic and functional gains are maintained.