Hip Labral Tear

Hip labral tears can happen to anyone, just most often affect athletes who participate in high-touch sports.

What You Need to Know

  • A labral tear is an injury to the tissue that holds the ball and socket parts of the hip together.
  • Torn hip labrum may crusade hurting, reduced range of motion in the hip and a sensation of the hip locking up.
  • Labral tears are typically caused by overuse, traumatic injuries or abnormalities in the shape or alignment of the hip bones.
  • Hip labral tears can be treated with or without surgery. If surgery is needed, it can exist done with a minimally invasive approach.

What is a labral tear of the hip?

A labral tear of the hip is an injury to the labrum — a band of cartilage on the socket part of the hip joint. Your hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint, composed of the brawl, which is the acme of your femur (femoral head) and a socket, which is office of your pelvis (acetabulum). The labrum helps continue the bones of the hip joint aligned and in place as you motility. It also helps keep the joint fluid inside the joint to ensure frictionless move.

The extent of hip labral tears can vary. Sometimes, hip labrum can have mini tears or fray at the edges. This usually happens due to a gradual wear on the labrum. In other cases, a section of hip labrum tin can carve up, or tear away, from the socket os. These types of hip labrum injuries are normally due to trauma.

Types of Hip Labral Tears

A hip labral tear can occur anywhere along the labrum. Doctors sometimes draw labral tears as anterior or posterior, depending on which role of the joint is affected:

  • Inductive hip labral tears: The most mutual blazon of hip labral tear. These tears occur on the front of the hip joint.
  • Posterior hip labral tears: These tears occur on the dorsum of the hip articulation.

Hip Labral Tear Symptoms

Hip labral tears crusade like symptoms regardless of the type of tear. Simply where you experience the symptoms may change depending on whether the tear is in the front or the back of the hip labrum.

Hip labral tear symptoms include:

  • Hurting in the hip, groin or buttocks, especially every bit you lot walk or run, and sometimes at night when you sleep.
  • Hip stiffness or limited range of move
  • A clicking or locking sensation in the hip joint when you lot move

Some labral tears of the hip may cause no symptoms, and can go unnoticed for years.

Hip Labral Tear Causes

Hip labral tears can happen to anyone. Hip labrum can tear suddenly, as a event of an bear upon, or gradually. Causes typically include:

  • Repetitive hip motions and hip overuse (especially in certain sports and occupations)
  • Traumatic hip injuries
  • Regular wear and tear of the hip
  • Deformities of the hip articulation, such equally hip dysplasia and aberrant os shape that leads to hip impingement, tin increment stress on the labrum.
  • Degenerative weather condition such as osteoarthritis. The relationship between osteoarthritis and hip labral tears goes both ways: The erosion of cartilage caused past arthritis can contribute to a labral tear, and a labral tear can make you more likely to develop arthritis years afterward.

Causes of hip labral tears may vary depending on the location of the tear. Anterior hip labral tears are usually caused by repetitive movements common in sports such equally ballet, golf, football game or hockey. Posterior hip labral tears are normally caused past traumatic injuries such as falls, accidents or loftier-impact sports injuries.

How are hip labral tears diagnosed?

Your doctor may apply the following diagnostic methods to determine if your symptoms are caused by a labral tear of the hip:

  • Physical examination to appraise signs of swelling and inflammation, your range of movement in the hip and movements that cause pain.
  • Ten-ray to detect any abnormalities in the shape or alignment of the hip joint every bit wells as signs of arthritis.
  • MRI browse with or without dissimilarity material to become a meliorate view of the soft tissues surrounding the hip joint, including hip labrum.

If the labral tear diagnosis is notwithstanding unclear after these tests, your doctor may recommend an ultrasound-guided injection with a painkiller. If it relieves pain, then it is probable that the cause is a labral tear.

Can a hip labral tear heal on its ain?

Hip labral tears practice not heal on their ain. Still, if your tear is small and is non causing much pain or limiting your mobility, it's possible to manage the symptoms without repairing the tear.

Hip Labral Tear Treatment

There are several options to care for labral tears of the hip. Typically, your doctor will recommend nonsurgical treatments first, but depending on the severity of the tear and your hurting, surgery may be the best approach.

Nonsurgical Treatments

Nonsurgical treatments for hip labral tears focus on managing the symptoms and preventing farther impairment to the labrum:

  • Residue and activity modification aim to reduce or eliminate movements that crusade pain and aggravate the injury.
  • Over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen can assist manage pain and inflammation.
  • Injections to the hip with steroids and anesthetics tin help temporarily relieve pain and inflammation if over-the-counter medications don't offer sufficient relief.
  • Physical therapy involves exercises that can help strengthen and stretch your hip muscles so they can better support the articulation and permit you to movement with less pain.
Alex Johnson

Johns Hopkins Hip Preservation Dispensary

Our experts at the Johns Hopkins Hip Preservation Dispensary offer minimally invasive treatments for hip hurting due to hip labral tears, impingement and similar conditions that don't require a hip replacement. Schedule a consultation with our hip preservation specialist Alex Johnson, K.D., in our Bethesda clinic: 240-762-5100.

Hip Labral Tear Surgery

If your hip labral tear is severe, or if you are withal in pain subsequently trying nonsurgical options, your md may recommend surgery. The most mutual surgery to repair hip labral tears is arthroscopic surgery. During this procedure, an orthopaedic surgeon makes several minor incisions to admission the hip. With the assistance of a special photographic camera device called an arthroscope, the surgeon locates the labral tear and uses surgical tools to repair it.

Repairing a hip labral tear may involve removing frayed pieces of labrum, stitching the tear back together or using tissues from other parts of the body to supercede a missing piece of labrum.

If your labral tear was caused by a hip impingement, the surgeon will address it past reshaping the bones of your hip joint so they glide smoothly.

Recovery After Hip Labrum Repair

Arthroscopic surgery is typically an outpatient procedure, which means you can go home the same day. After your hip labrum repair, you will exist able to render to low-impact activities such as walking almost immediately. Your surgeon will refer yous to a physical therapist to starting time exercising your hip to restore your range of move and strengthen the joint.

If your job is in a low-action environs, such as an part job, you may be able to return to work in one to two weeks subsequently your hip labral tear surgery. If your job puts significant stress on the hip, you tin piece of work with your physical therapists to determine a rubber render date or discuss job modifications with your employer to let you to ease back into work as you recover.