Rate of continued conservative management versus progression to surgery at minimum 1-year follow-up in patients with pre-arthritic hip pain.

The study was done at one tertiary hip specialty center, so the surgery rate may be higher than in patients seen first in primary care or a less specialized setting. It was a retrospective record review, not a treatment trial, so it cannot show that any treatment caused a better or worse course. Patients who did not have surgery at the study center and had no record of surgery elsewhere were assumed not to have progressed, which could miss some surgeries. The study did not measure whether patients who did not have surgery had good symptom control or whether they were not good surgical candidates. Missing patient-reported outcome data was more common among patients who continued conservative care or saw a conservative specialist. Advanced imaging was not required for eligibility, so structural diagnoses were not uniform across patients.

The supplied text does not report author conflicts of interest. The article is marked as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.

Do not conclude that conservative management, including physical therapy, reduces the need for surgery. This was an observational study at a specialty center, not a treatment trial, and it did not measure whether patients who avoided surgery had satisfactory symptom control or long-term joint health.