Hip Injuries in Sports
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The hip is the area of your body where your leg meets your torso at the pelvis. The hip joint allows you to swing your leg so you can move. It also keeps you stable while standing, walking or running.
The hip is a complex joint. Pain in hip injuries in sports can come from overuse, injury, or strain. The source of your hip pain is not always clear. But we can help figure it out.
Hip Conditions We Treat in Sports Medicine
- Hip bursitis
- Hip impingement (femoroacetabular impingement or FAI)
- Hip strain
- Snapping hip
Treating Hip Injuries
Playing sports can put lots of strain on your hip joint. Running, jumping and quick turns wear on the hip, and the wrong move can lead to injury. When should you get your hip checked? Winston Gwathmey, MD, talks about the hip and what to do if it gets injured.
ANNOUNCER: At University of Virginia Health System, we are for bringing advanced care closer to home. So we're bringing health knowledge directly to you with UVA Health System Radio. Here's Melanie Cole.
MELANIE COLE: Are there certain sports or activities where hip injuries would be more likely and be more common? What are those most common hip injuries and how do you prevent them? And that's the most important thing. My guest today is Dr. Winston Gwathmey. He's an orthopedic surgeon with UVA, whose specialties include arthroscopic hip surgery and sports medicine. Welcome to the show Dr. Gwathmey. Tell us a little bit about sports or activities where our hips seem to be more at risk for injuries.
WINSTON GWATHMEY: Thank you. The hip is the new frontier of Sports Medicine. And injuries that, 20 years ago, were really unrecognized or we didn't really understand the pathology behind it, we're starting to recognize a lot more often now. And to be honest, it's sort of an exciting topic to discuss. So your question about what sports predispose to injury-- really, any sport where you're moving at a high speed and pivoting and changing direction where you are loading the joint, the hip can be at risk.
And I think that what athletes need to understand is in sports that may cause injury, there's also elements of just where the human body that may predispose injury as well. So I think it's an important concept to understand when you're dealing with hip injuries.
MELANIE COLE: Well, we're even seeing more of these, which we never would have seen in younger people. And as a soccer becomes more prevalent, and these, as you say, these stopping and turning and those kinds of sports, are becoming more common-- people are playing weekend soccer and injuring their hips. What about things that don't involve sports? Things that we could do that would injurer our hips that are just functional things every day?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: I think we need to backtrack just a touch and that it's not that the hip injuries are more common now, I think we're starting to recognize what's causing them. And it's a combination of two things, really, that make it pretty simple. One is the way you're shaped. And two is what you expose your hip to. So the normal hip is pretty tolerant to most activities.
But there are certain elements in the way the pelvis might be shaped that might make you at risk for having a hip injury with sports or even with just routine activities. What I mean by that is sometimes the ball and socket of the hip joint just don't fit together that well. And it's just as either a developmental thing or built into your genetics-- the same reason why some people go on to have arthritis and some people don't. I think that what we're starting to recognize that there are certain elements of the skeletal morphology that might make you at risk for having hip injuries.
MELANIE COLE: So when do we know that it's actually a strain or an injury? When would we go see a doctor?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: So normally, hip injuries will be pain localizable to the groin. The hip joint is actually directly in the groin. It's not out in the side, it's not really in the back. So most people who have hip injuries recognized discomfort in the groin. And it's usually worse with loading the hip. So if you're putting impact onto the hip or when you're sitting in it for a long period of time with your hip flexed, sometimes you'll feel some discomfort. Sometimes standing up from a long car trip, you'll feel pain within the hip. Or sometimes, when you're playing a specific sport, and you do a certain twist or turn, you'll feel that pain. And that's when we start thinking more and more about the hip joint as being part of the problem.
MELANIE COLE: What do you do about it? What's the first line of defense, icing the hip or resting? You think about the knees are easier. But what do you do for the hip?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: The hip like you say, is easy. The knee is right there, the hip is deep down within the body. So even putting a bag of ice on it takes a while for that cold to get down to the hip joint. So I think rest really is the first thing I would try, just try to calm things down. Ice is very helpful for some of the inflammation that might be around the hip. Anti-inflammatories are always very helpful because there's usually an inflammatory component to it. But hip pain is localizable to the groin. It doesn't get better after a couple of weeks. You probably ought to at least see somebody to try to make sure you don't have something more sinister going on.
MELANIE COLE: And what if you do? When you go see a doctor, what is it you're going to do? Can an x-ray show things or do you have to have an MRI?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: So I think that's a very good question. I think-- and this is sort of my gestalt, if you will, that the X-ray is really the gold standard for diagnosing hip pathology. And what I mean by that is going back to what I said previously, the way that your body and your pelvis is shaped its very important when you're trying to understand hip injuries. There's a term, it's kind of a complicated term, but it's called femoroacetabular impingement, or FAI. In the femur is the thigh bone. The acetabular is a socket. And basically it's when the ball and socket don't fit together that great. And that's recognized, really, on X-ray, to be honest. And you can see sort of the way the ball in the socket is shaped and see if there's going to be a risk factor for having a hip injury.
And let's just say that you do have that shape to your pelvis. An MRI can be very helpful to make sure the labrum, which is basically the at the seal, the lip around the hip joint, the cartilage, the soft surface of the hip-- see if there is damage there or the muscles around the hip.
MELANIE COLE: I'm even hearing about some younger people requiring hip replacements. Dr. Gwathmey, when does it come to that? And especially, we hear about that in our older patients all the time. Hip replacement being one of the easier to recover from, certainly more than a shoulder or a knee. But when does it come, with the younger people, to something so drastic?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: So let me tell you. My goal in my specialty is to avoid hip replacement. I'm a hip preservation specialist. So I try to do everything I possibly can to prevent the progression of arthritis, to address injuries in a minimally invasive manner to avoid the ultimate salvage, which is the hip replacement. Now, all that being said, a hip replacement is now standing surgery. It's got, probably, the best track record of any orthopedic surgery that we offer.
But it is metal inside the body. And if you can maintain your own anatomy and your own tissue, you're a lot better off in the long run. And so what I would try to do is recognize the pathology that might predispose you to having arthritis and do what I can to either correct it or at least ameliorate it to a point where you can put off getting a hip replacement much, much later in your life.
MELANIE COLE: Dr. Gwathmey, when I hear people complain of hip pain, and right away they want to do something about it, or as you say, look into replacement, and sometimes, there's a simple solution. And as a hip preservationist, how important do you think shoes, or heel lift, or orthotics, play that role if we find out our hips are uneven or something is going on in our spine that's causing pain that we think is in our hips? How important do you think it is?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: My first line for all hips is trying to address the environment in which the hip is. So whether it be a misbalance of the pelvic stabilizers, whether to be a spine issue like you're saying, whether it be shoe wear, limb length discrepancy. A lot of times, I'll start with the therapy routine to try to get a functional assessment. So a therapist can take a look at you and see how you walk, see if there is something, just in the way you do things, that might put your hip at risk. And that really is the first line for all people with hip problems just to make sure that you correct what can be corrected before you go forward with something like surgery.
And to be honest, most people get better without surgery. So as far as hip preservation, that's where I come in, and I do arthroscopic surgery of the hip, and so if the therapy doesn't work, or if there's pathology that can't be addressed from an external standpoint, that's where I come in and do what I can do to try to make the hip feel better.
MELANIE COLE: I agree completely. And I see so many people-- and have myself-- had hip problems that were solved very simply with a better pair of shoes or an orthotic or a heel lift. So these kinds of solutions are something that people really can look to. And what role do you think that exercise plays in keeping those good strong hip muscles? And what are your favorite exercises to recommend to people to strengthen up their pelvis and all around their hip muscles?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: So I start with the core, typically. I think the core is really where the foundation for the entire gait cycle, the way your hips move. So the spinal stabilizers, the public stabilizers and things like that. The hip abductors and adductors, are very critical as far as the pelvis balance. But again, you have to have your range of motion first before you can imagine strengthening stuff. So I work on symmetry. I look whatever is going on good with the hip that's working, I try to make the bad hip match that one.
MELANIE COLE: That's great information in just the last minute. Why should patients that are suffering from hip pain come to see you at UVA for their care?
WINSTON GWATHMEY: So I again, I am a surgeon who specializes in arthroscopic hip surgery. So let's just say that all the stuff we throw at your hip, it's still not getting any better. And we get an MRI and you have a labral tear or you have FAI, this impingement thing we're talking about. What I can do that I think that's what sets me apart as a surgeon is I can address those elements with a video camera and two tiny holes in your hip.
Now, it sounds simple. But it's actually a very challenging procedure. And it's actually pretty challenging to come back from. But it is a technique that we can utilize here that gives a minimally invasive approach to hip pathology. So I do think that there is a role for trying to do everything we can to get a hip better without surgery. But when it comes to surgery, I think can provide a pretty good tool bag as far as things that I can do to help the hip.
MELANIE COLE: Thank you so much. You're listening to UVA Health Systems Radio. For more information, you can go to UVAHealth.com. That's UVAHealth.com. This is Melanie Cole, thanks so much for listening.
Symptoms of Hip Injuries in Sports
Symptoms of injuries include:
- Pain in the hip or groin area
- Difficulty moving your leg
- Difficulty or pain with standing
Our sports medicine hip care isn’t just for athletes. Whether you’re injured through work or play, we’re here to help.