The Dangers of Not Treating a Hip Labral Tear

You seem to be waking most mornings with hip pain and stiffness, and the problem is showing no signs of going away. In fact, it’s going in the opposite direction and getting worse.

While it’s impossible to diagnose your hip pain from afar, Dr. Brian White, who is the experienced and skilled hip preservation specialist here at Western Orthopaedics, wants to point out that between 22% and 55% of people who have hip pain have a hip labral tear.

Here, we discuss the pitfalls of ignoring hip pain that’s related to a hip labral tear and why intervention now can save you from much bigger problems (and procedures) down the road.

Hip labral tears 101

Let’s first start with some background about hip labral tears. Your hips are ball-and-socket joints. To keep the top of your femur (the femoral head) firmly in position, your socket has a ring of cartilage around the edge called the labrum. The labrum forms a sort of gasket in your hip that not only keeps the femoral head in position, but also keeps the joint sealed and lubricated.

With a hip labral tear, this tissue is damaged, which can occur due to an acute injury, often related to sports and collisions. More often however, a hip labral tear develops over time and mostly as a result of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) — where there’s extra bone that prevents the bones in your hip from fitting together properly, which tears the labrum.

Another road to a hip labral tear is a deformity in the joint, such as hip dysplasia, which can place added stress on the labrum.

Signs of hip labral tear

We’re assuming you’re here reading this because you’re dealing with hip pain, which is certainly one of the hallmarks of hip labral tears. This pain can be felt in your groin, as well as directly around your hip. 

Hip labral tears can also lead to stiffness in your hip, a clicking or popping in the joint, and hip weakness and/or instability.

Why you shouldn’t ignore hip pain and labral tears

Now let’s dive into why we strongly recommend early intervention when you have hip pain of any kind. If your hip pain stems from a labral tear and you ignore the problem, it’s likely only going to get worse and lead to bigger problems.

Hip labral tears don’t typically heal on their own, and the longer they’re present, the more damage you can do inside your hip. One of our chief concerns with untreated hip labral tears is premature arthritis. Approximately 32.5 million Americans have osteoarthritis (OA), and the hips account for their fair share of the overall OA burden.

If you have an untreated hip labral tear, you’re far more likely to develop OA in the joint, which can lead you down a road to become one of the more than half a million hip replacements each year in the United States.

Our goal is to put this eventuality off, if not avoid joint replacement completely, by repairing the labrum early on. Dr. White is an expert in hip preservation and labral reconstruction, and he uses advanced hip arthroscopy techniques to fix the labrum and address the underlying cause of the tear. For example, if you have FAI, Dr. White can reshape the bones so that they fit together better, which helps prevent another hip labral tear.

 If you’re keen on the idea of hanging on to your joints for as long as possible, it’s a really great practice to pay attention to musculoskeletal pain and discomfort. So, for hip pain, we want you to make an appointment with Dr. White sooner rather than later. To get started, simply contact one of our offices in Arvada or Denver, Colorado, to set up an appointment.