Importance of arthroscopy in hip dysplasia?

Arthroscopy of the dysplastic hip joint is a technically very demanding procedure and is only performed in exceptional cases. The causal treatment of acetabular hip dysplasia is still open surgical acetabular reorientation. Before the rare indication for arthroscopy in acetabular hip dysplasia can be made a precise preoperative radiological diagnosis is essential. This includes in particular a correctly performed pelvic overview X-ray image, with which the degree of dysplasia and the radiological degree of instability can be determined. Hip arthroscopy can be performed before, during or after open acetabular reorientation in order to treat the typical concomitant pathologies, such as femoroacetabular cam impingement, lesions of the labrum, cartilage damage and rupture of the ligament of the head of the femur. In cases of acetabular hip dysplasia arthroscopic treatment alone mostly provides only temporary improvement of the preoperative complaints and therefore has to be viewed critically. In borderline cases arthroscopic diagnostics can confirm the indications for open acetabular reorientation.