Dr. Cady's Blog

Just the sound of a tear sounds painful but maybe not?

First of all, what is a “labral tear”? The hip socket is like a small cave with a labrum or cartilage/connective tissue lining the inner rim, which is called the acetabulum. The top of the leg, which consists of the femoral head (top of the femur) fits within that little cave and sits next to that acetabulum’s labrum.

There are many patients who complain of hip pain to their physicians, who may then send those patients to receive hip Xrays or MRIs. If a hip joint labral tear is diagnosed by MRI and the patient still has pain, then it is not uncommon to be referred to an orthopedic surgeon who does surgery for labral tears. However, not all patients get better from surgery.

The reality is there are many people with hip joint labral tears but not all of them have pain:

A May 2015 study revealed that of 70 young adult volunteers who had NO pain in their hips, 27 of them (38.6%) had labral tears by MRI findings. There was an isol...