Hip labrum repair surgery

[Coco]

Hello, anyone here have experience with surgery to repair a torn hip labrum?

I'm in my ... let's call it mid-40s so I'm curious if it is worthwhile.

Doctor believes that my labrum is torn due in part to a portion of my femoral head being flatter than it should be. That plus sports injuries, but this is a very old pain. I've probably had the torn labrum for decades.

 

[IceSlider]

Hi, the way your message reads doesn't seem your Doc is too sure that's the source of the problem. Surgery is an invasive proceadure that carries risks, even if it's keyhole done under a local. Have they given you any other non invasive options to explore? I'd want to have good evidence via scans (MRI, Ultrasound ect.) and be taken through that before I let anyone open me up. I'd want to see that tear or strong evidence if it, as it is the Doc seems to just be saying that the flatter femoral head is indicative of... perhaps a second opinion?

 

[hanca]

Hello, anyone here have experience with surgery to repair a torn hip labrum?

I'm in my ... let's call it mid-40s so I'm curious if it is worthwhile.

Doctor believes that my labrum is torn due in part to a portion of my femoral head being flatter than it should be. That plus sports injuries, but this is a very old pain. I've probably had the torn labrum for decades.

It is definitely worth to have the surgery. If you don’t have it done, it may get worse. I started with labral tear, continued skating (I did attend various tests at the hospital and for a long time they couldn’t find what’s wrong so I continued with all my usual activities). It took about a year before they managed to diagnose it, four different specialists, and many scans. Eventually I ended up with four injuries instead of one, all of them in the hip. If there is something wrong, you start compensating and start overusing other parts...suddenly I also had a partial tear of iliopsoas and a partial tear on gluteus (don’t remember which gluteus). And also had torn bits of the labrum floating within the hip joint, which was preventing the joint to move smoothly, it was ‘getting stuck’, and eventually because of the iliopsoas I couldn’t lift my leg high enough to walk up the stairs. I had to grab the leg and lift it with my hand. So if they diagnosed you and you can have it fixed, it may be a good idea to have it fixed before other things go wrong.

Saying that, the surgery involves them dislocating the hip joint, and it will never fit exactly as it was before. Alissa Czisny had this operated and after it healed, she tried to come back and the hip dislocated at her first competition after her return. She retired soon after. One US pair male had it, I don’t recall who it was, but also tried to come back, but retired soon after. Not sure if you are skating and at what level. I was able to skate afterwards, but I had to swap to ice dance. Even though I was just an adult skater with single jumps, I could feel that the jumps just were not a good idea. But no problem with ice dance and field moves. Well, not quite no problems - the hip never felt as stable as it was before the injury, but it was definitely better repaired than not repaired.

 

[Coco]

Thanks... definitely not a skater, but a collegiate women's lacrosse official. That involves lots of running in all directions.

I've had increasing pain in this hip and the SI joint above it for a long time, so this is probably unavoidable.

What was rehab like? How long were you on crutches?

 

[hanca]

I could walk the same day, although only with crutches and very carefully.
It took about 3-4 months before I could skate again (not jumping). There are no problems with running at all. It is the sports that require balance on one leg that can be a big of a problem. Not a huge problem, (I didn’t keep constantly falling) but at times when all my weight was on that repaired leg, I had a feeling that I can’t trust the leg, because it felt like if from time to time something inside moved. Like if you are standing in a too big shoe and it moves when you walk, so the same feeling was in my hip. I know it sounds weird, but like that is the hip moved within the hip joint. I have never had the same feelings when I walk or run. It is just during sports which requires balance, precision and absolute control over your body, you suddenly realise that actually you can’t trust that leg. I had the same feelings when I tried wire walking.

 

[fan]

I need the surgery as well, but my doc told me only after I’m done having kids as the hip can fuse shut

 

[alexikeguchi]

I've had both hips done for femoroacetabular impingement causing labral tearing, at ages 50 and 51 because that's when the symptoms manifested. In my case, imaging showed that there was no evidence of significant arthritis despite my middle age, so I was able to have arthroscopic hip preservation surgery instead of hip replacements. I had no weight bearing for two weeks followed by limited weight bearing for another two which was really the only difficult part since basic activities like cooking and showering were very awkward. I had shockingly minimal pain (actually a lot less than preop) and took only extra strength ibuprofen. Rehab was 2-3x/week for about three months, and then I was released. It took several more months after that to correct some of the compensations I had been making to stabilize and take pressure off my hip joints, but I am 100% now and extremely satisfied.

You should definitely make sure your orthopedic surgeon has experience with this diagnosis and complete appropriate testing to confirm that the labral tear is truly the source of your symptoms and that the joint space isn't already too narrowed due to established arthritis. If all those things are in order, you should do great with the surgery.

 

[Japanfan]

I have never had the same feelings when I walk or run. It is just during sports which requires balance, precision and absolute control over your body, you suddenly realise that actually you can’t trust that leg. I had the same feelings when I tried wire walking.

Wire walking? Who wouldn't feel a bit of trepidation if they tried it?

 

[hanca]

Wire walking? Who wouldn't feel a bit of trepidation if they tried it?

It was a foot or two above the ground and there were soft mats under that. It wasn’t me feeling trepidation; it was more about not having the control over the leg when I need a very high level of balance, stability, control. What I was trying to say is that in day-to-day situation I wouldn’t even know I have had hip surgery, walking, running and many other sports are absolutely fine now, but sports when one need that tiny bit of extra stability and balance, in those sports now I would be useless. I can still try, but the outcome just won’t be great.