Abstract
Introduction
Herniation pits had been considered as a normal variant, a cystic lesion formed by synovial invagination. On the contrary, it was also suggested that herniation pits were one of the diagnostic findings in femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) because of the high prevalence of herniation pits in the FAI patients. To date, the exact etiology is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether there is an association between the presence of herniation pits and morphological indicators of FAI based on computed tomography (CT) examination.
Materials and methods
We reviewed the CT scans of 245 consecutive subjects (490 hips, age: 21–89 years) who had undergone abdominal and pelvic CT for reasons unrelated to hip symptom from September, 2010 to June, 2011. These subjects were mainly examined for abdominal disorders. We confirmed by the questionnaire survey that there were no subjects who had symptoms of hip joints. We reviewed them for the presence of herniation pits and the morphological abnormalities of the femoral head and acetabulum. Herniation pits were diagnosed when they were located at the anterosuperior femoral head-neck junction with a diameter of more than 3 mm. We measured following four signs as indicators for FAI: α angle, center edge angle (CE angle), acetabular index (AI), and acetabular version. Mann-Whitney U-test was used for statistical analysis.
Results
Herniation pits were identified in 61 of the 245 subjects or, with respect to individual hips, in 85 (17%) of 490 hips. The prevalence of herniation pits in younger subjects (<60 years, 240 hips) and elderly subjects (≥60 years, 250 hips) were 16.3% and 18.4%, respectively. Among 85 hips, the mean diameter of herniation pits was 5.9 ± 2.4 mm and it was significantly larger (p<0.01) in the elderly subjects (7.1 ± 2.4 mm) than in the younger subjects (4.7 ± 1.7 mm). In terms of the α angle, there were significant differences between the group with (49.8 ± 16.6°) and without herniation pits (40.7 ± 6.7°) in the elderly subjects, whereas not significantly different among the younger subjects. Measurements of the acetabular coverage (CE angle, AI) and the acetabular version showed no significant difference between the subject with and without herniation pits.
Discussion
In the present study, the prevalence of herniation pits was 17% in asymptomatic Japanese general population. The fact that the size of the herniation pits enlarge with age may suggest these cystic lesions have degenerative characteristics with no association with FAI. Although large α angles have been recognized as a predictor of cam impingement especially in young population, it was impossible to show the relationship between α angle and presence of herniation pits in young population. These results suggest that the presence of the herniation pits has little relevance to FAI diagnosis.
