Hip Impingement | Physio4Life

Hip Impingement

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INJURY TITLE

Hip Impingement

 

INJURY OVERVIEW

This is an injury where the outer cartilage lip of the hip joint can get pinched between the thighbone and the pelvis.

 

INJURY IN-DEPTH INFORMATION

The ball like end of the thighbone sits in a socket in the pelvis and strictly speaking this is called the ‘hip joint’.  The integrity of this joint improved with structures like ligament and other soft tissues.  There is also a cartilage lip on the socket part of the joint that helps to make the joint more stable.

 

Various factors can cause this cartilage to get trapped in between the ball like end of the thighbone and the socket on the pelvis.  The ball like end of the thighbone can be shaped incorrectly or there could be an excess of the cartilage.  Both of these will leave the cartilage vulnerable to getting pinched and this will cause pain, usually felt at the front of the hip and into the groin.

 

COMMON SIGNS & SYMPTOMS

  • Pain when taking your thigh towards your chest (e.g. leaning forward when attempting stand up form sitting, or crouching to pick things up).
  • Pain when applying pressure over the front of the hip and groin

 

HOW IS IT ASSESSED

  • Clinical examination the exclude other causes of pain
  • X-Ray will not show the injured cartilage but the injury is sometime inferred from these scans.
  • MRI scan can help to highlight the injured cartilage accurately

 

GENERAL TREATMENT

  • Pain management (ICE and anti-inflammatory medications)
  • Exercise therapy including strengthening and stretching to help with any imbalance muscle pull feeding into the condition
  • If pain persists the injection therapy can help
  • Surgical intervention can help in persistent cases (it can help to prevent cartilage degeneration)

 

Exercise Videos: i.e.

  • Rotator cuff strengthening
  • Pec stretch
  • etc

 

WHICH HEALTH PROFESSIONAL TO CONSULT

PHYSIO     X

MEDIC     X

PODIATRY     

Put an ‘X’ next to each health professional that most commonly deals with this injury.

i.e. tennis elbow would be Physio and Medic as injections are common, whereas for muscular LBP it would be Physio and not Medic as they would just refer them to a Physio.

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