In this edition focused on hip arthroscopy and conditions that typically affect the athlete, the included papers are of elegant design and precise methods. Clearly, hip and groin injuries are particularly limiting in sports and are a common cause in diminished quality of life and ability to participate in sporting activity [4]. From these studies, we learn so much about how well what we do surgically works and naturally…how much we still need to learn to understand conditions that affect the hip. Several papers address morphology associated with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). In particular, the alpha angle is an important measure of aberrant morphology of the femoral head and neck junction [8]. The included papers suggest that this measure may be for developmental in etiology when elevated, predictive of range of motion when examining athletes and perhaps associated with intra-articular damage, particularly of chondro-labral injury [2]. At the same time, this same measure (alpha angle) may not predict outcomes following arthroscopic correction of FAI in the mid-term though in general return to sports activity is high in athletes [3]. This apparent contradiction suggests there is much to learn about the morphology of impingement and predictors of good outcomes. Furthermore, the importance of cartilage status is highlighted in this edition as well as how global FAI as a condition truly is in a study documenting this morphology in an Asian population suggesting FAI is a global phenomenon.
