Compications
No surgical procedure is complication-free. However, hip arthroscopy fortunately has a very low rate of mishap. 1.6% of operations are associated with complications. Complications are of two sorts. Either those related to surgery generally (general complications) or those related to hip arthroscopy specifically (specific complications). Let us look at complications in more detail:
General complications (common to most operations):
Anaesthetic complications (eg. postoperative chest infection)
Urinary complications (eg. inability to pass urine after surgery)
Gastrointestinal complications (eg. inability to open bowels)
Vascular complications (eg. blood clots in leg veins, stroke)
Cardiac complications (eg. heart attack)
This list is by no means exhaustive, so if you have any queries, please ask your surgeon before hip arthroscopy is undertaken.
Specific complications (related to hip arthroscopy specifically):
Neurological complications
Damage can occur to a variety of nerves that supply the leg. Mostly these will recover after the operation, but occasionally slight loss of feeling can remain over the upper and outer part of the thigh. The French have reported postoperative impotence, though this has not been seen in the Cambridge series.
Vascular complications
These are complications associated with blood vessel damage. The arthroscopy wounds can sometimes bleed persistently after the procedure, though will always stop in the end. It is theoretically possible for large blood vessels to the leg to be damages during hip arthroscopy, though this has not been seen in the Cambridge series.
Infection
This has been reported after arthroscopy in general. No infection has been found in the Cambridge series as yet. Should it occur this can be a major problem for the joint.