Five-Year Functional Outcomes After Acetabular Labral Repair with and without Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate.

Background: Bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) augmentation at the time of hip arthroscopy is a potential solution to improve functional outcomes in patients with cartilage damage concomitant with acetabular labral tearing; however, follow-up functional scores to date have not exceeded 24 months. Therefore, the present study compares minimum 5-year outcomes in patients treated with or without BMAC augmentation to address chondral damage during arthroscopic labral repair.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study analyzing patients who underwent acetabular labral repair performed by a single surgeon. Patients were stratified into either the BMAC cohort or the control cohort depending on whether BMAC was utilized in conjunction with arthroscopic labral repair. Demographic and intraoperative variables, including chondrolabral junction breakdown and articular cartilage damage, were compared between cohorts, as were patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) at enrollment and at 3, 6, 12, 24, and 60 months postoperatively.

Results: Eighty-one hips were included for analysis: 39 (38 patients) in the BMAC cohort and 42 (39 patients) in the control cohort. Univariate analyses demonstrated similar baseline characteristics between groups, including body mass index, Tönnis angle, lateral center-edge angle (LCEA), and alpha angle (p > 0.05 for each). Patients treated with BMAC and patients in the control group reported similar PROMs between enrollment and the 12-month follow-up. By the 24-month follow-up, patients treated with BMAC reported significantly higher scores for the modified Harris hip score (mHHS) (p = 0.004), the International Hip Outcome Tool-33 (iHOT-33) (p = 0.012), and the Hip Outcome Score-Activities of Daily Living (HOS-ADL) (p = 0.008). This trend persisted over time, with the BMAC cohort demonstrating significantly higher scores for the mHHS (p < 0.001), iHOT-33 (p = 0.006), and the Hip Outcome Score-Sports Subscale (HOS-SS) (p = 0.012) at 60 months.

Conclusions: Patients undergoing acetabular labral repair with BMAC augmentation reported significantly greater functional improvements compared with patients undergoing repair without BMAC. These differences generally did not become significant until 24 months after surgery, at which point they increased in magnitude until the 60-month follow-up. These findings, the first intermediate-term outcomes reported following hip arthroscopy with BMAC, therefore suggest favorable benefit at an extended follow-up.

Level of evidence: Therapeutic Level III . See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.