Trochanteric pain in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty: A protocol for a systematic review

Background: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most common surgical procedures. Although THA surgeries are typically very successful, between 3% and 17% of all patients experience trochanteric pain after surgery. Unfortunately, there remains little high quality and reproducible evidence surrounding this disorder, especially following total hip replacement. The objectives of this review are to describe, among pre-operative or post-operative primary THA patients the prevalence, treatments, prognosis, risk factors, and diagnostic methods available for trochanteric pain.

Methods: This is a protocol for a descriptive systematic review of trochanteric pain among THA patients. We will include studies of all study designs, with the exception of non-systematic reviews and expert opinion, with no date limits. We will search Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library using the Ovid search interface. We will also search the reference lists of included studies for possible missed studies. We will use the systematic review management software Rayyan to assist with study screening. Two reviewers will independently review studies for inclusion and extract data into a study-specific database.

Discussion: This study will add to the literature by comprehensively and systematically evaluating the available literature on trochanteric pain after THA. Previous studies have been conducted on the topic but they were not comprehensive or did not review the literature systematically. Additionally, our study will critically evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies, adding an evidence-based component to the review. This review will help orthopaedic surgeons better care for patients with trochanteric pain after THA, and will identify knowledge gaps for future research.

Registration: This protocol will be registered on PROSPERO