Athletes push their bodies physically whether in workouts, practices, or sport. However, pain or injury can keep even the most determined athlete on the sideline.
Hip and groin pain is a common complaint among athletes of all ages and has been estimated to account for 5% to 6% of all sports injuries.1 In the past, sports related hip injuries received little attention because of inadequate clinical assessment, imaging studies, and surgical techniques.2 In the last few decades, this has changed thanks to modern hip arthroscopy.
Hip arthroscopy is a minimally invasive, outpatient procedure that allows your surgeon to look inside the hip joint using an arthroscope (a pencil sized instrument that contains a miniaturized fiber optic camera), which is inserted through a tiny button-hole incision in the skin. The magnified images from the arthroscope are viewed on a monitor to accurately identify and address painful hip motion from abnormal bony contact,referred to as hip impingement, and torn cartilage, referred to as labral tear.
Patients are generally discharged home on the same day as the hip arthroscopy procedure and recover much faster as compared to traditional open surgery because of the many benefits of this minimally invasive procedure. These benefits of the procedure include:
- Improved Visualization of the Hip Joint: Virtually direct vision of the hip joint makes it possible to diagnose problems that may be overlooked using other diagnostic imaging studies.
- Minimizing Blood Loss and Pain: Being a minimally invasive procedure, there is less cutting of skin and tissue keeping muscles, blood vessels, and surrounding tissues intact, which lessens pain in recovery.
- Lowered Risk of Infections: There is a lowered risk of infection and other complications following hip arthroscopy.
- Faster Recovery and Return to Sport: Because hip arthroscopy is a minimally invasive procedure, it can significantly reduce recovery time helping athletes get back to their sport.
Hip injuries can affect athletes of all ages and levels of competition. Thankfully, advancements in hip arthroscopy have helped accurately diagnose and successfully repair hip injuries such as labrum tears, hip instability, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), muscle tendon tears, or articular cartilage injuries.
If you are an athlete and have been suffering from hip pain, Dr. Bharam can help get you back in the game.
Author:
Dr. Srino Bharam is a board-certified, fellowship-trained sports medicine hip preservation surgeon specializing in the treatment of athletic injuries of the hip and groin. Dr. Bharam has over 20 years of experience in treating sports injuries of the hip with the goal of returning athletes to competition.
