
Medication
Meaning that if you have been diagnosed with a hip labral tear, there may be other factors that are truly causing the pain other than the labrum. When the labrum is truly the source, there is good news. Recovery is attainable without surgery!
Procedures
Symptoms include:
- Pain in the hip or groin with crossing your legs
- Pain in the hip at end ranges
- Pinching, catching or a grating feeling in the hip
- Pain with combined flexion, adduction, and internal rotation (knee across chest)
- Pain with combined flexion, abduction, and external rotation (knee bent and resting out to side)
Therapy
- 0-4 Weeks Post Surgery: Begin mobility and exercises and stretching. ...
- 4-8 Weeks Post Surgery: By this time, you should be more comfortable moving your hip joint. ...
- 8-12 Weeks Post Surgery: The focus during this time is building strength and increasing endurance. ...
- 12-16 Weeks Post-Surgery: You can (literally) jump for joy at this point. ...
Nutrition
What does a hip labral tear feel like? Hip labral tear symptoms can include: Deep groin pain or pain in the buttocks on the side of the injured hip. A feeling or sound of clicking or locking when your hip is in motion. Hip pain, especially while it rotates in certain directions. Stiffness while moving your hip. Diagnosis
See more
Can I recover from a hip labral tear without surgery?
What are some exercises for hip labral tear recovery?
What is the recovery time for hip labrum surgery?
What does a labral tear in the hip feel like?

Can a hip labral tear heal without surgery?
Many patients inquire about hip labral tear recovery without surgery. Simply put, a hip labral tear will not heal without surgical treatment. However, many less severe hip labral tears can be managed for years, sometimes even indefinitely, with nonsurgical treatment.
How serious is a torn hip labrum?
A tear in your labrum can cause pain and instability in your hip, damage other tissue and cartilage in your joint, and lead to osteoarthritis over time.
How long does it take for a torn labrum to heal hip?
Whether you are treated surgically or nonsurgically, recovery from a torn hip labrum can take up to six weeks. Depending on the extent of the injury, competitive athletes may return to their sport sometime between 2 and 6 months.
Can you walk with a torn hip labrum?
Pain in the front of the hip or groin resulting from a hip labral tear can cause an individual to have limited ability to stand, walk, climb stairs, squat, or participate in recreational activities. With a labral tear, you may experience: A deep ache in the front of your hip or groin.
Will a cortisone shot help a torn hip labrum?
Cortisone will NOT repair a torn labrum. Some patients receive several months of relief, but others do not receive more than a few days of relief. It is not advisable to resume high impact activities if the cortisone injection decreases pain from the hip because of concerns of further damage to the torn labrum.
Is hip labral tear surgery worth it?
Doctors recommend labral tear surgery to patients who they think are good candidates—these patient are not at high risk for surgical complications and are likely to have good postsurgical results. For other patients, a hip replacement or other hip surgery may be considered.
What happens if a labral tear goes untreated?
If left untreated, this may lead to chronic or recurrent shoulder instability, pain, and weakness.
What aggravates hip labral tear?
Walking, pivoting, prolonged sitting, and impact activities, such as running, often aggravate symptoms.
How painful is hip labral tear surgery?
Generally, you'll experience some hip discomfort during recovery. This discomfort may also be experienced in your buttock, lower back, ankle and knee. We can use appropriate pain medication to reduce the discomfort.
Can a labral tear in hip get worse?
If a labral tear is left untreated, it will lead to ongoing and worsening pain. A normal labrum is important to the normal function of the hip joint. A torn labrum leads to cartilage damage and eventual arthritis of the hip joint.
How to repair labral tear in hip?
If symptoms persist or if the tear is severe, your doctor may recommend surgery. Surgery to repair a hip labral tear is usually done arthroscopically . This is a minimally invasive surgery in which the doctor makes small incisions (cuts) in the hip and uses miniature instruments to make the following repairs:
How to diagnose hip labral tear?
To diagnose a hip labral tear, the doctor will do a physical examination. During the exam, the doctor may ask you to move your leg or walk around. How well you can move, and any pain you feel while moving, can help the doctor with the diagnosis .
What is the ball and socket of the hip called?
The hip is shaped like a ball-and-socket. The socket is called the acetabulum, and the ball is the femoral head, located at the top of the femur (leg bone). A hip labral tear is an injury to the labrum, the soft tissue that covers the acetabulum. The labrum helps the femoral head move smoothly within the socket.
Why do I have a labral tear in my hip?
Structural ailments: Conditions that cause abnormal hip movement can also lead to hip labral tears. In femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), the femoral head doesn’t fit into the socket properly. This imperfect fit can cause long-lasting groin pain and movement limitations. This is the most common cause of labral tears. FAI can affect people at any age. Without treatment, it can result in osteoarthritis in some patients.
What tests can be done to diagnose a labral tear?
Imaging tests can also help doctors diagnose a hip labral tear. The doctor may order the following imaging tests: X-rays: X-rays can alert doctors to problems with the hip bones, such as femoroacetabular impingement, or osteoarthritis, that may contribute to a labral tear and a painful hip.
What is the function of the labrum?
The labrum helps the femoral head move smoothly within the socket. It lets your hip move without problems or pain. It also serves as a seal, keeping the ball and socket together but not touching.
How to tell if you have a labral tear?
The symptoms of a hip labral tear include: Hip pain or stiffness. Pain in the groin or buttocks area. A clicking or locking sound in the hip area when you move. Feeling unsteady on your feet. If you have a hip labral tear, hip pain or discomfort may get worse when you bend, move or rotate the hip, or exercise or play sports.
What is hip labral tear?
Orthopedic surgeons have become better at understanding sources of pain, and technology has increased our ability to diagnose conditions that previously went undetected. One source of hip and groin pain that is being diagnosed much more commonly is called a hip labral tear .
Why is the hip labrum flexible?
1 . The hip labrum, like other types of cartilage, tends to have problems healing from injury.
When was the first hip labral surgery performed?
The first arthroscopic hip surgeries took place in the 1980s and it has become a routinely performed surgical procedure today. Between 1999 and 2009, arthroscopic surgery of the hip joint increased 18-fold, ...
How old do you have to be to get hip surgery?
The ideal candidate for surgical treatment is under the age of 40 years old and does not have signs of arthritis in their hip joint. 9
When should nonsurgical treatment be attempted?
It is clear that in almost all situations nonsurgical treatment should be attempted first and patients over the age of 40 should be considered very cautiously for a surgical treatment.
Where is the hip joint?
The hip joint is a ball and socket joint at the junction of the top of the thigh bone and the pelvis. Unlike other ball and socket joints such as the shoulder, the hip has a very deep and stable socket. The labrum is a cuff of cartilage that makes a ring around the edge of the hip socket. This helps to deepen the socket, ...
Can a labral tear be arthroscopic?
Most importantly, labral tears are often seen in the setting of other damage to the hip joint including arthritis and bone spurs. A labral tear in the setting of arthritis of the hip is nothing like a labral tear as an isolated injury. 3 . When surgery is considered for a hip labral tear, the most common way to address this is through arthroscopic ...
What to do if you have a labral tear in your hip?
If it has been decided that you only have a minor tear or that you do not want the arthroscopic surgery usually recommended and prescribed for a hip labral tear, you will be recommended to a course of conservative treatments . This will include: Anti-inflammatory medications.
What causes a hip labrum tear?
posterior superior labrum hip tear (front and top of the hip) superior labrum hip tear (towards the rear of the hip) posterior labrum hip tear (the rear of the hip) Some hip labrum injuries and labral tears can be caused by a sudden, specific injury or repetitive motions that cause “wear and tear.”.
What happens after hip labrum surgery?
Full-thickness tears of the cartilage are seen, even after the hip surgery. The unsolved instability and mechanical problems of the hip remained after the hip labrum surgery. This caused the continued degenerative disease of the hip and continued pain and instability for the patient.
Why do surgeons give intra articular lidocaine injections?
Intra-articular lidocaine injections have been used to confirm the hip damage and may be used to predict the effectiveness of arthroscopic surgery. Surgeons routinely give lidocaine injections as a surgical indicator. If the patient has a degree of pain relief, this is an indication that surgery would be successful.
Why does my hip make a popping noise?
If you are here reading this article you have likely been to a doctor, a specialist/surgeon, and have been told that that catching/locking, popping/clicking noise in your hip is a result of a hip labrum tear. This was likely confirmed by an x-ray or MRI of the hip. You may have been recommended to have surgery sometime in the future. People can do very well with a hip labrum arthroscopic surgery. These are the people we usually do not see at our center, we see the people that did not do well or may not be good candidates at this time for a surgical procedure because the “damage is not significant enough.”
What kind of hip tear did Alice have?
Alice had a hip labral tear. After months of visiting the chiropractor with limited results, Alice had an MRI that revealed a hip labral tear.
Why is it important to take out the labrum?
If you take the hip meniscus or the hip labral tissue out you are taking out tissue that the body needs for stability. The surgery will leave the patient less stable. Some patients believe the titanium staples used in these surgeries will provide the stability and support they need for their hips. The labrum is a very pliable tissue. Simply tacking it in place will restrict all the movement the hip was designed to do. It also indicates that the tear found in the labrum was the isolated reason for the patient’s pain. This is simply not the case. Tissue tears are not isolated injuries. Any type of injury affects all structures of the joint.
What is Hip Labrum?
The socket is called the acetabulum. The hip labrum is a ring of fibrocartilage that is attached to the acetabulum. It provides stability and deepens the joint. The labrum increases the joint surface area by 22% (1). The hip labrum is susceptible to injury and can tear. Tears are thought to be from gradual wear and tear, trauma, congenital malformation (dysplasia), impingement and joint laxity (2).
What Causes Hip Pain that Radiates Down the Leg?
Does the combination of a hip labral tear with pain down leg necessarily mean that the labral tear is causing the pain? Given that labrum tears are present in patients without hip pain it is important to understand the other causes of anterior thigh and hip pain . The major causes include
What is it called when your hip labrum tears?
When the hip's labrum tears, it's called a hip labral tear. Here are some symptoms of a torn hip labrum:
When Should You Get Surgery for a Labral Tear?
Mass General Brigham Sports Medicine patients will be evaluated for conservative treatment options and then a mutual decision will be made on whether surgery is needed. If a patient has a symptomatic hip labral tear , they may notice improvement with nonsurgical treatment. Patients might get a low-dose steroid injection to reduce or alleviate pain followed by physical therapy a few weeks later.
What is the labrum in the hip?
This injury refers to a ring of cartilage —called the labrum—that surrounds the hip joint socket. The labrum helps keep the hips in alignment and protects the hip joint where the ball of your thigh connects with the hip socket. When you have a hip labral tear, that soft elastic tissue tears or detaches from the joint. This can be very painful but some patients don't experience symptoms.
How many people are satisfied with nonsurgical hip surgery?
Over 70% of the study participants who followed nonsurgical treatment procedures were satisfied. Some of those patients who received nonsurgical treatment and had a more significant hip injury still reported residual hip pain, were limited in their activities and were considering hip surgery.
What to do if conservative treatment isn't working?
If conservative treatments aren't working, your doctor might suggest surgery, which is usually done as a minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery.
Can hip arthritis cause a labrum tear?
Age plays a part in the degeneration of the labrum, too. If you suffer from hip arthritis, that could lead to a hip labrum tear.
Can a hip labrum tear?
Whether you're a recreational athlete participating in adult hockey, football or soccer, a weekend warrior or a professional athlete, you could be at risk of a torn hip labrum.
