Study Finds High Rate of Hip Impingement Among College Football Players

Among collegiate football players, the instances of morphologic abnormalities associated with cam and pincer femoroacetabular impingement are more common than previously thought, according to a study reported in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Researchers examined 67 male collegiate football players who were evaluated independently by two different orthopedic surgeons for radiographic signs of femoroacetabular impingement. Of the 134 hips that were examined, 95 percent showed at least one sign of cam or pincer impingement.

•    77 percent of hips showed more than one sign of impingement
•    21 percent had only one sign of cam femoroacetabular impingement, while 57 percent had both signs
•    52 percent showed only one sign of femoroacetabular impingement, while 10 percent had two signs and 4 percent had all three
•    72 percent had an abnormal alpha angle
•    64 percent had decreased femoral head-neck offset
•    61 percent had a positive crossover sign
•    16 percent had decreased acetabular index
•    7 percent had increased lateral center-edge angle

Nearly 50 percent of all hips had at least one sign of both pincer and cam impingement.

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