Does classification system help with clinical decisions about hip surgery?

Determining which patients can benefit from hip preservation surgery (rather than hip replacement surgery) is challenging, but the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recently published a hip preservation surgery appropriateness classification system.

A new Arthritis Care & Research analysis looked at what impact the system might have on clinical decisions.

The analysis found that the classification system for hip preservation surgery is driven almost exclusively by age and radiographic tests for hip osteoarthritis.

"Given the rudimentary nature of these variables for complex hip conditions, there appears to be substantial limitations associated with the classification system," said co-author Dr. Daniel Riddle, of Virginia Commonwealth University.