PT Inquest Podcast: Hip Arthroscopy vs Physiotherapy for FAI – Critical Appraisal of the BMJ RCT (ptinquest.libsyn.com)

• The RCT included 348 patients with FAI randomized to surgery or physiotherapy.
• At 12 months, the surgery group showed significantly greater improvement in iHOT-33.
• The physiotherapy protocol is criticized as potentially inadequate.
• The discussion emphasizes the need for high-quality rehabilitation research.

"This PT Inquest episode critiques the 2019 BMJ RCT by Palmer et al. comparing arthroscopic hip surgery to physiotherapy for symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). The hosts question the quality of the physiotherapy protocol used in the trial and discuss the implications for interpreting results that favored surgery. The episode highlights differences in research standards between surgical and rehabilitation fields."