Twelve percent of hips with a primary cam deformity exhibit a slip-like morphology resembling sequelae of slipped capital femoral epiphysis.

Background: In some hips with cam-type femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), we observed a morphology resembling a more subtle form of slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE). Theoretically, the morphology in these hips should differ from hips with a primary cam-type deformity.

Questions/purposes: We asked if (1) head-neck offset; (2) epiphyseal angle; and (3) tilt angle differ among hips with a slip-like morphology, idiopathic cam, hips after in situ pinning of SCFE, and normal hips; and (4) what is the prevalence of a slip-like morphology among cam-type hips?

Methods: We retrospectively compared the three-dimensional anatomy of hips with a slip-like morphology (29 hips), in situ pinning for SCFE (eight hips), idiopathic cam deformity (171 hips), and 30 normal hips using radial MRI arthrography. Normal hips were derived from 17 asymptomatic volunteers. All other hips were recruited from a series of 277 hips (243 patients) seen at a specialized academic hip center between 2006 and 2010. Forty-one hips with isolated pincer deformity were excluded. Thirty-six of 236 hips had a known cause of cam impingement (secondary cam), including eight hips after in situ pinning of SCFE (postslip group). The 200 hips with a primary cam were separated in hips with a slip-like morphology (combination of positive fovea sign [if the neck axis did not intersect with the fovea capitis] and a tilt angle [between the neck axis and perpendicular to the basis of the epiphysis] exceeding 4°) and hips with an idiopathic cam. We evaluated offset ratio, epiphyseal angle (angle between the neck axis and line connecting the center of the femoral head and the point where the physis meets the articular surface), and tilt angle circumferentially around the femoral head-neck axis. Prevalence of slip-like morphology was determined based on the total of 236 hips with cam deformities.

Results: Offset ratio was decreased anterosuperiorly in idiopathic cam, slip-like, and postslip (eg, 1 o'clock position with a mean offset ranging from 0.00 to 0.14; p < 0.001 for all groups) compared with normal hips (0.25 ± 0.06 [95% confidence interval, 0.13-0.37]) and increased posteroinferiorly in slip-like (eg, 8 o'clock position, 0.5 ± 0.09 [0.32-0.68]; p < 0.001) and postslip groups (0.55 ± 0.12 [0.32-0.78]; p < 0.001) and did not differ in idiopathic cam (0.32 ± 0.09 [0.15-0.49]; p = 0.323) compared with normal (0.31 ± 0.07 [0.18-0.44]) groups. Epiphyseal angle was increased anterosuperiorly in the slip-like (eg, 1 o'clock position, 70° ± 9° [51°-88°]; p < 0.001) and postslip groups (75° ± 13° [49°-100°]; p = 0.008) and decreased in idiopathic cam (50° ± 8° [35°-65°]; p < 0.001) compared with normal hips (58° ± 8° [43°-74°]). Posteroinferiorly, epiphyseal angle was decreased in slip-like (eg, 8 o'clock position, 54° ± 10° [34°-74°]; p < 0.001) and postslip (44° ± 11° [23°-65°]; p < 0.001) groups and did not differ in idiopathic cam (76° ± 8° [61°-91°]; p = 0.099) compared with normal (73° ± 7° [59°-88°]) groups. Tilt angle increased in slip-like (eg, 2/8 o'clock position, 14° ± 8° [-1° to 30°]; p < 0.001) and postslip hips (29° ± 10° [9°-48°]; p < 0.001) and decreased in hips with idiopathic cam (-7° ± 5° [-17° to 4°]; p < 0.001) compared with normal (-1° ± 5° [-10° to 8°]) hips. The prevalence of a slip-like morphology was 12%.

Conclusions: The slip-like morphology is the second most frequent pathomorphology in hips with primary cam deformity. MRI arthrography of the hip allows identifying a slip-like morphology, which resembles hips after in situ pinning of SCFE and distinctly differs from hips with idiopathic cam. These results support previous studies reporting that SCFE might be a risk factor for cam-type FAI.