Higher Prevalence of Concomitant Shoulder Labral Tears in Patients With Femoroacetabular Impingement.

Purpose: To examine the prevalence of concomitant symptomatic glenoid labral tears in patients with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) in comparison to a control group of patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.

Methods: We retrospectively identified 1,644 patients who underwent femoroacetabular osteoplasty (FAO) and labrum repair from January 2007 to September 2016 and 1,055 patients who underwent arthroscopic ACL reconstruction from January 2012 to December 2014, which acted as our control group. An electronic questionnaire, including 8 questions regarding history of shoulder pathology, was sent to all patients in both groups. Symptomatic shoulder labral tears were identified on the basis of a positive magnetic resonance imaging scan or history of labral repair by reviewing patients' medical records and the filled questionnaire. Continuous variables were compared by use of a Mann-Whitney U test, and categorical variables were compared using Fisher's exact test. The Holm-Bonferroni sequential correction method was used to adjust P values for multiple comparisons of the presence of shoulder pathology.

Results: A total of 443 patients (405 cam lesion) in the FAO group and 307 patients in the ACL reconstruction group completed the prepared questionnaire and were included in the study. Patients in the FAO group were slightly older (36.3 years [range, 15.4-61.7] vs 32.3 years [range, 16.3-75.7]) and more commonly female in the FAO group (58.0%, n = 257) compared with those in the ACL group (48.9%, n = 150). The prevalence of shoulder labral tear was 12.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.3%-15.3%) for the FAO group compared with only 3.3% (95% CI, 1.8%-5.9%) for the ACL group. This represents a 3.7-fold (95% CI, 1.9-7.1) increase in the risk of shoulder labral tear for patients in the FAO group. Furthermore, shoulder labral tears were reported to be traumatic in only 43.4% of patients in the FAO group compared with 80.0% of patients in the ACL group. A similar proportion of patients in both groups (66.0% for FAO vs 60.0% for ACL) underwent a shoulder labral repair procedure.

Conclusion: There appears to be an association between acetabular labral tear caused by FAI and shoulder labral lesions. Patients in the FAI group had a 3.7-fold increase in the risk of shoulder labral tear compared with the ACL group. Future studies are needed to examine a possible cause behind the current findings.

Level Of Evidence: Level III, comparative trial study.