The correlation between hip alpha angle and acetabular labral tear location and size: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Explore the correlation between hip morphology and labral tear location/size. Methods: This retrospective study analyzed patients with hip pain who received magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography at our institution, between January 2017 and December 2020. Imaging analysis includes labral tear location and size, and hip morphology measurement with alpha angle, lateral center-edge (CE) angle, anterior CE angle, and femoral neck version. The correlation between hip morphology angles and labral tear location/size was evaluated using multiple regression, followed by stratification analysis with Chi-square test to investigate interactions between the variables. Results: A total of 103 patients (105 hips) with hip pain who received MR arthrography (mean age, 50 years ± 15 [SD]) were included, with mean alpha angle of 57.7° ± 9.9° [SD], mean lateral CE angle of 32.6° ± 6.8° [SD], mean anterior CE angle of 58.2° ± 8.1° [SD], mean femoral neck version of 17.1° ± 8.2° [SD]. Large alpha angle (>57°) and older age were both correlated with superior and posterosuperior labral tear incidence (p < 0.05) and larger tear size (p < 0.05). Furthermore, alpha angle is significantly correlated with superior labral tear incidence in young-age subgroup (age <45 years) (p < 0.05), also significantly correlated with posterosuperior labral tear incidence and larger tear size in middle-age subgroup (45 ≤ age ≤ 60 years) (p < 0.05). Conclusion: A large alpha angle (>57°) is significantly correlated with increased incidence of superior and posterosuperior labral tear, and larger tear size in patients with hip pain, and the relationships depend on age.