Labral Tear in hip: Question for those who had surgery

Triathlon Forum
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I have a couple of acetabular labral tears in my left hip (well, I have them in both, but only the left is symptomatic). I have been doing PT for a month, and while it helps a bit, it is still a nagging aggrivation.

I am not in SEVERE pain. It’s more like I said, nagging. It bothers me most when I run (where it sort of makes my leg go limp) and on my MTB and tri bike (road bike not as much). When I ride, I have noticeably less power in that limb. It bothers me more the longer I ride and/or run.

I have no impingement, and there didn’t appear to be any arthritic changes (at least as far as the MRA showed).

The doc I saw said to give PT a go for a couple of months, and if it still bugged me, to have it surgically trimmmed.

My question for those of you who have had surgery is: How long did you wait/how bad was it before you felt it warranted surgery?

I have a bad knee–full thickness, total compartmemnt arthritis my lateral compartment, and progressing arthritis in the front, milder in the medial. Bone spurring, bone brusing and edema. Missing most of my lateral mensicus (what’s left is torn) and a torn medial. Numerous surgeries. It hurts all the time. I guess I have been thinking, if my hip doesn’t feel nearly as bad as my knee, why bother fixing it? Meaning–I am still training on my knee. Do I take the risk of fixing the hip, and run the risk of making it WORSE? Is the recovery time worth it to simply get rid of a nagging, chronic pain? I only have limited time left on my knee, so I am trying to make the most of what I have, and not sure which course of action is best for the hip…

Any thoughts?

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I had a tear in my right hip about 10 years ago. Scoped it, they smoothed it out, after I healed up (which didn’t take long) I was fine.

Unfortunately I do have impingment now which I’m getting fixed. But just fixing the tear years ago wasn’t a big deal and I could start running and riding without pain again. good luck

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Thanks for the good news! I’m finding tons of horror stories…but not a lot of success stories. I am wondering if that’s b/c success are more rare, or b/c people just like to bitch and commiserate when stuff goes wrong. :wink:

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I’m interested in any posts on this as well. I have nearly the exact same problems and am trying to make the same decisions. This sucks!

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My fiancee is going in for this surgery tomorrow morning. I will post an update as we go through the healing process.

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Is she having a debridement only, or a repair as well.

I’ve now developed bursitis on top (ha! literally :p) of the labral tears. If I’m not riding or running, neither bugs me a ton…but then I’m not riding or running, which is obviously not ideal. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Rock - with a knee like that, maybe doing what you can to extend it’s longevity would be your best bet. Like substituting something else for triathlon. There will come a time when even walking is quite painful, and with your description of the knee, it doesn’t sound like you’d be a candidate for a lesser procedure like simply a scope (although that may offer short term relief at some point), an osteotomy realigning the joint, partial replacement, etc., and somebody will talk to you about a replacement - something you do not want to do until you absolutely cannot stand it anymore.

Maybe a heart to heart with the Orthopedist about your current status and both long and short term goals will give you the information you need to answer this question. In the end, it really doesn’t matter what’s right for any other ST’er, only what’s right for you. Good luck.

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The surgery went well this morning.

They repaired, rather than removed the tab of the labrum. Sutured it back in place rather than cutting it off.

They also removed two bone impingements and tightened the capsule.

She is now on the sofa riding the oxycodone high. But even with minimal narcotics she is not in any pain, just a little nausea.

We have a follow up with the surgeon tomorrow morning. So we should get a little more detail then.

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Rock - with a knee like that, maybe doing what you can to extend it’s longevity would be your best bet. Like substituting something else for triathlon. There will come a time when even walking is quite painful, and with your description of the knee, it doesn’t sound like you’d be a candidate for a lesser procedure like simply a scope (although that may offer short term relief at some point), an osteotomy realigning the joint, partial replacement, etc., and somebody will talk to you about a replacement - something you do not want to do until you absolutely cannot stand it anymore.

Maybe a heart to heart with the Orthopedist about your current status and both long and short term goals will give you the information you need to answer this question. In the end, it really doesn’t matter what’s right for any other ST’er, only what’s right for you. Good luck.

Hi John…thank you for your words :slight_smile: And you are right on in many respects–walking is already painful, although it waxes and wanes. Some days I get up from my desk at work, and it takes me 15 minutes of shuffling before systems “come on line”…other days, less. And you are also correct that I am no longer a candidate for any lesser procedure. After my last surgery, which was another menisectomy and microfracture (failed), I had been having regular MRIs, b/c at one point we thought maybe a cartilage transplant and meniscal transplant might work, but after considering it well, we realized the joint surface is just too bad for that.

I am having yet another cope in a couple of weeks, just to clean it up, drain it, etc.–basically short term relief. My surgeon (the one I am working with now) is a bit conservative, which is good, I think…but he feels like with reduced running mileage, pool running, XTing, I can get by on scopes for a while. My next surgical option is a DFO (distal femoral osteotomy), which is not a common procedure in adults at all (as I’m sure you know), and is a VERY long rehab.So obviously, we’d like to put that off.

When we last met, his opinion was “eventually, yes, it will crap out whether you run or not. If you run, you may have 5 years, or 10, or 20…I don’t know.” So we continue our waiting and seeing. In the meantime, though, I am in PT again–undoubtedly the long time weakness in that side has caused all the other issues I am having–I had my first knee surgery at 12, and as I’ve been running all my life, obviously I ended up kind of lopsided :stuck_out_tongue: We are all hoping that the PT will help shore up the weaknesses (and help with the labral tears and now bursitis).

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Rock - I would request lots of photos from the upcoming scope, especially of the lateral femur and patellofemoral joint, to give you a clear picture of whether or not you’d be a candidate for the osteotomy. If you do eventually have the procedure, I’d ask the surgeon proposing it, “How many have you done this year?” the answer would be quite important. Also, I still feel that the original recommendation of discarding running would be what I’d try to get my patient to do. And, as a father of three, I can be pretty persuasive.