Suffering a Hip Cartilage Tear?
The hip or acetabular labrum is a thick ridge of cartilage that runs around the socket of the hip to make it deeper and more stable. Hip cartilage tears, or labral tears, can occur for many reasons. Most commonly it occurs in sporting populations where the hip is forced into extremes of range or loaded with repetitive trauma – ie: BJJ, hockey, soccer, and ballet.
Studies have found that nearly 1/5 athletes with groin pain have a labral tear, but almost 75% of all labral tears have no direct cause!
Some people experience no pain at all from a labral tear! Others may complain of catching, aches deep in the groin, or through the buttock itself.
Diagnosis of a labral tear is done both clinically with special testing and MRI scanning to visualise the hip joint in more detail. In most cases, labral tears are very successfully treated with conservative measures such as a highly focused hip and pelvic control rehabilitation program and physiotherapy. These programs are highly detailed and require patience and persistence to help retrain deep core and pelvic stabilisers, restore range of motion, and efficient biomechanics. In some cases steroid injections into the cartilage or surgery may be of benefit if the conservative treatment has not been successful.
City Physio & Sports Injury Centre has been providing musculoskeletal physiotherapy in the MLC Centre for over 30 years. Our team are expertly trained in providing detailed full-body assessments and delivering personalised treatment for musculoskeletal conditions, sports injuries, headaches, neck and back pain.