Hip Impingement Specialist in South Carolina
What is Hip Impingement?
Hip impingement, also called femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), happens when the ball of the hip (femoral head) pinches up against the cup of the hip (acetabulum). When this happens, the cartilage around the acetabulum, called the labrum, can get damaged. This can cause stiffness and pain in the hip and can lead to arthritis.
Hip Impingement Types
When a person has hip impingement, they may experience:
- Cam – A deformity in the femoral head, or ball, makes it more oval than round. When the ball hits the edge of the cup in the joint, this makes friction
- Pincer – When the acetabulum, or cup, has an abnormal shape with extra bone sticking out. This extra bone causes friction when the edge of the cup hits the head of the femur, which crushes the labrum
- Combined – When the hip joint has both cam and pincer types of impingement
Hip Impingement Symptoms
When a person has hip impingement, they may experience:
- Pain in the groin when moving or after, or when sitting for a long time.
- Trouble bending the hip past a right angle
- A stiff hip
- Problems climbing the stairs
- Loss of balance, or “limping”
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Hip Impingement Treatment
Your doctor may first suggest simple treatments like rest, changing how you do things, taking anti-inflammatory drugs, and sometimes physical therapy. But if these things don’t help your pain, you may be a good candidate for surgery.
Hip surgery for hip impingement has two main goals: to fix the damaged part of the hip joint and to correct and improve the shape of the joint so it is as close to normal as possible.
Most impingements can be treated with hip arthroscopy, but sometimes an open approach is needed. Specialists at Midlands Orthopaedics & Neurosurgery can help you with all of the ways to treat hip impingement.
Hip Impingement FAQs
What Causes Hip Impingement?
FAI happens when a child’s hip bones don’t grow the right way. A cam bone spur, a pincer bone spur, or both can cause damage and pain in a joint. Hip impingement is hard to stop when the shape of the hip bones develops wrong.
What is the Outcome of Hip Impingement?
Pain and other problems can be caused by impingement, which can be fixed with surgery. Hip pain can be helped by fixing the impingement.
Some of the damage can be fixed by surgery, but not all of it. This is especially true if treatment was put off and the damage got worse. However, it’s possible that there will be more problems in the future.
Even though there is a small chance surgery won’t help, it is still the best way to treat painful FAI.
Hip Impingement Treatment in South Carolina
The orthopedic doctors and physical therapists at Midlands Orthopaedics & Neurosurgery will make sure you get the best care possible so you can feel better as soon as possible. If you have a condition or injury that affects your hip, please call 803-256-4107 to make an appointment.