Report of Breakout Session: Strategies to Improve Hip Preservation Training

Excerpt

Although it seems logical that basic principles of hip preservation surgery such as understanding the pathomorphological mechanisms underlying disease states such as acetabular dysplasia and femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) should be part of the adult orthopaedic training curriculum, in reality, there is great variability in teaching these concepts in international training programs. Pediatric-based disease processes are widely taught as part of pediatric orthopaedic curricula, but diagnosis and management of young adult hip deformities frequently are not formally covered in sports medicine or adult reconstruction curricula. Also, different philosophies internationally such as a pathology-based approach in western Europe (hip or knee surgeon-specific) and treatment-based approach (joint arthroplasty versus arthroscopy) in the United States create difficulties in standardizing educational programs. The exposure in residency to these pathologies is limited except in isolated programs in which surgical preservation of the hip is performed and many residents finish their program without ever seeing or participating in joint-preserving procedures. For the most part, residency allows the resident a glimpse of the pathology and may heighten the graduating orthopaedic surgeon to its presence but does not prepare the resident to accurately diagnose or surgically treat these cases. …