Increasing Hip Arthroscopy Case Volume Is Associated With Increased Risk for Revision Surgery but Not Conversion to Total Hip Arthroplasty or 90-Day Hospitalizations: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of 468 Surgeons.

PURPOSE

To analyze the effects of surgeon-specific factors, including case volume, career duration, fellowship training, practice type, and region of practice, on rates of 2-year revision surgery, conversion to total hip arthroplasty (THA), and 90-day hospitalizations following hip arthroscopy.

METHODS

The PearlDiver Mariner Database was used to query patients undergoing hip arthroscopy between 2015 and 2018. Surgeons performing these procedures were identified, and surgeon-specific demographics and variables were collected from publicly available data. Patients were followed for 2 years to assess for reoperations, including revision hip arthroscopy and conversion to THA, as well as 90-day hospitalizations, including emergency department visits and hospital readmissions. International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes were used to track the laterality of revision hip procedures. Associations between surgeon-specific factors and postoperative outcomes were assessed through univariate and multivariate analyses.

RESULTS

In total, 20,834 patients underwent hip arthroscopy procedures by 468 surgeons. Multivariate analysis with logistic regression adjusted for patient-related factors (age, sex, obesity, Charlson Comorbidity Index, and smoking status) identified increasing surgeon case volume to be associated with increased risk for 2-year revision hip arthroscopy (P < .001), but not 2-year conversion to THA or 90-day hospitalizations. Nonsports medicine fellowship-trained surgeons were associated with greater risk for 2-year THA conversion (P < .001) and 90-day hospital readmissions (P < .01). Surgeons practicing in an academic setting demonstrated greater risk for 90-day hospital readmissions (P < .001). Surgeons practicing in the West region of the United States were more likely to incur 2-year revision hip arthroscopy procedures compared to surgeons in the South, Midwest or Northeast (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Increasing surgeon hip arthroscopy case volume is associated with an increased risk for 2-year revision hip arthroscopy but not conversion to THA or 90-day hospitalizations. Further, non-sports medicine fellowship-trained surgeons were associated with higher risk for 2-year THA conversion after hip arthroscopy.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level III, retrospective cohort analysis.