Groin Pain Syndrome Italian Consensus Conference update 2023.

Abstract

Groin pain syndrome (GPS) is a controversial topic in Sports Medicine. The GPS Italian Consensus Conference on terminology, clinical evaluation and imaging assessment of groin pain in athletes was organized by the Italian Society of Arthroscopy in Milan, on 5 February 2016. In this Consensus Conference (CC) GPS etiology was divided into 11 different categories for a total of 63 pathologies. The GPS Italian Consensus Conference update 2023 is an update of the 2016 CC. The CC was based on a sequential, two-round online Delphi survey, followed by a final CC in the presence of all panelists. The panel was composed of 55 experts from different scientific and clinical backgrounds. Each expert discussed 6 different documents, one of which regarded the clinical and imaging definition of sports hernias, and the other 5 dealt with 5 new clinical situations thought to result in GPS. The panelists came to an agreement on the definition of a sports hernia. Furthermore, an agreement was reached, recognizing 4 of the 5 possible proposed pathologies as causes to GPS. On the contrary, the sixth pathology discussed did not find consensus given the insufficient evidence in the available scientific literature. The final document includes a new clinical and imaging definition of sports hernia. Furthermore, the etiology of GPS was updated compared to the previous CC of 2016. The new taxonomic classification includes 12 categories (versus 11 in the previous CC) and 67 pathologies (versus 63 in the previous CC).