Hip Labrum Tear Specialist

What is a hip labrum tear?

Your hip labrum is a ring of cartilage at the outer rim of your hip socket. It protects your joint and acts as a seal or gasket to hold the head of your femur securely in the joint for stability and helps reduce excessive joint forces.

A labrum tear is an injury to that tissue that may cause pain in your hip and/or groin, stiffness, and a reduced range of motion. Left untreated, it may lead to severe osteoarthritis which may require a hip replacement.

A hip labrum tear can also create a catching or clicking sensation in your hip. You may experience pain without the other symptoms, especially if the damage is relatively minor, which is the best time to treat the condition with arthroscopic surgery.

What causes a hip labrum tear?

The most common causes of labrum tears are abnormal deformities of the bones comprising the hip. These include FAI (femoroacetabular impingement or hip impingement) and dysplasia (shallow socket). Labral tears may occur in even very young patients, Dr. Matsuda has successfully treated children and adolescents with painful hip conditions.

Many people have these hip deformities or bone spurs and don’t know it until the labrum tears. The labrum has pain nerve fibers, similar to the knee meniscus, and when damaged or torn, it may cause groin or hip pain.  

Many athletic patients tear or damage the hip labrum. Repetitive flexing (bending hip joint), twisting, and pivoting motions performed while training and competing in a sport can also contribute to a hip labral tear.

Soccer, football, basketball, dancing, cycling, hockey, gym workouts, martial arts, surfing and many other sports may cause a hip labral tear, but labral tears also occur in sedentary patients with activities such as squatting or getting out of a car.

Moreover, although one may be told that stretching the hips is good for many athletic endeavors such as dance or martial arts, stretching may actually predispose the athlete with hip deformities to a labral tear.

A physical therapist or sports medicine doctor may be able to help guide you, but a hip specialist like Dr. Matsuda may be able to detect a pathologic hip condition before it leads to severe arthritis that needs a hip replacement.

How are hip labrum tears diagnosed?

Dr. Matsuda offers complete exams to diagnose hip labrum tears. He combines his extensive knowledge of orthopedic hip issues with state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging studies like X-rays to detect even subtle bone deformities and MRIs to identify hip labrum tears or cartilage damage.

How are hip labrum tears treated?

If your hip pain and reduced range of motion are due to a labrum tear, the best course of action may be arthroscopy to repair your hip labrum.

In some cases, the hip labrum is damaged beyond repair. Dr. Matsuda developed a surgery to replace the irreparable labral tissue with a tendon graft which is called labral reconstruction.

This procedure is able to restore the important function of the hip labrum in preserving the hip while eradicating pain.

Arthroscopy is a minimally invasive, outpatient procedure that allows Dr. Matsuda to examine the inside of your joint, repair damaged tissue, and correct bone deformities without having to make a large incision. This avoids the extensive blood loss, hospitalization, and prolonged recovery of open surgeries.

If you’re concerned about a hip labrum tear, call Premier Hip Arthroscopy or schedule a consultation online today.