Recovery and return to sport after hip arthroscopy

The reason we are usually performing arthroscopic surgery on the hip is to correct a significant abnormality of the shape of the hip joint, most frequently femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and to repair as best as possible the injury that has occurred to the hip joint. The operative treatment for this condition was originally described using a more invasive open approach and recovery from the surgical procedure itself took quite sometime. What is interesting is that return to sport is not that different when comparing arthroscopic and open approaches. What this tells us is that although the recovery from the surgery itself is very much quicker and easier with arthroscopic surgery, the hip joint itself still takes a significant amount of time to recover from the intervention and needs time to return to a state where impact, twisting and turning can be tolerated.

Immediately after surgery a period of restricted weight bearing may be necessary, in my practice usually about 4 weeks. However, I think it is important to start exercising the hip straightaway and we favour hydrotherapy the day after surgery. From then we progress patients on a low impact exercise programme for a period of about 3 months. The exact length of time of these phases of the recovery process will depend on the precise nature of the surgery undertaken. At that point the hip is usually comfortable and strong enough to start impact exercise such as running. Returning to sports such as football and tennis would usually be at the 4-6 month mark. To get the most out of the surgery it is important to be able to put in the required time for rehabilitation.