Labral Hip Tear with Impingement

First four weeks you'll be bound by crutches. I was doing upper body/fingerboarding basically the whole time. I just got off crutches a week ago and started rehab, and I have to say it feels great. There is most definitely some muscle tightness, especially when trying to walk a full stride without compensating, but every day I'm noticing that slowly going away.  I'm already noticing a difference just in the range of motion. I would get intense pain just from the movement of entering or exiting my car, now that pain is gone. I think if you stick to your rehab, do the little stretches and stuff they give you multiple times a day, you'll be fine. Just really take those first 4 weeks easy. My surgeon said even though I can walk now, after crutches, the main concern is going at it too quickly resulting in stress fractures in my femur, on account of how much bone he removed. If that's the case for you then just take it nice and easy past those 4 weeks. 

I had the exact same issue as you, in the left hip as well. My inpingement surgery was a total failure. The problems never really went away and I ended up having a hip replacement 2 years later which is the best thing that has happened to me. The recovery from impingement surgery was also more involved/harder than the recovery from the hip replacement. For reference my hip surgery was done when I was 44 years old. The 2 years after my first surgery I was only able to attain 12a sport Redpoints with maybe one 12c. This is a lower level for myself. Since my hip replacement I have sent numerous 13b’s which is the top of my game/ability. I had pain and inflammation after the impingement surgery as well which made multi pitching hard and the hiking as well. Now with the hip replacement hiking upto the Bugaboos with a big pack and multi pitch alpine climbing is joy. In short I wish I would have gotten better medical advice and went straight to the right answer instead of wasting almost 3 years of early/mid 40’s. Good luck!

So I should reference my last comment with the understanding that I'm 28. I've been noticing a trend related to whether or not it is successful, and it's A.) How long you've had the injury for, and B.) How old you are. Age seems to make the biggest difference in all the experiences I've been told. Obviously at my age it makes no sense for me to get a hip replacement unless absolutely necessary. With how active I am, coupled with the 15-20 years you'll receive, max, from a replacement, it just wasn't an option. But I have heard how much better a replacement is.

Was just diagnosed with a partial labral tear and some cartilage wear from FAI. Debating getting anthroscopy when my daily life and 95% of my climbing is quite pain free, but mostly goddamn it I want to travel this year. I'll be hitting PT to see what that does and quitting running and specific motions that flare it up. Good to know life goes after the procedure and I'm not the only late-20s geezer with hip issues.

I had both hips operated on back when I was in college (6 years ago). I was playing football at the time and putting a lot of abuse on my joints from overtraining. My right Labrum was non existent which was causing my bones (ball and socket) to rub/hit each other. For this reason, cortisone shots gave no relief. Originally I was to have both hips worked on during the same surgery. But because of the condition of my right hip, they had to drill holes into my socket to promote cartilage growth, which caused me to be fully non-weight bearing instead of light-weight bearing. I came back after a pretty gruesome 6-8 weeks of crutches, only to start the process back over when I had the other surgery done. It was a long road, by the far the most mentally challenging recovery compared to my other surgeries (shoulder/knee). I wish you the best, and if you have any questions feel free to ask. PLEASE take rehab seriously.

p.s. I am currently a carpenter, climber and snowboarder living a full life.

Back in 2007, after 18 months of hip flexor problems I had a MRI and was diagnosed with a labral tear.  My Boulder ortho referred me to a surgeon at Steadman Hawkins (one of the top sports medicine clinics in the country), who assured me that the surgery would correct the instability that was the cause of my hip pain.  It did not.  What did eventually fix the problem was not running 80+ miles a week.  Fast forward 14 years later and I now need a hip replacement in that same hip.  Had I had to do it again, I would have skipped the labrum repair.

fossana wrote:

 who assured me that the surgery would correct the instability that was the cause of my hip pain.  

It may be worth mentioning that adding capsular plication (tightening the hip joint/socket to truly address instability) to the labrum repair surgery is a recent development. From my understanding, correcting the underlying instability during labrum repair surgery was not really done before 2010ish. I’ve had 3 labrum repairs (2008 right hip, 2014 left hip, 2020 right hip) at Stanford. The latter two surgeries included a capsular plication to address the instability on both sides. Doc was optimistic that should be the end of labrum issues for me. So far, so good, for what it’s worth...

Hi Tyler.

I had that exact same surgery on my left hip in 2011 and have had a full recovery with no issues. Please reach out if you have any questions :)

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So as an update for anyone considering the surgery, or those interested, I'm about 3 1/2 months post op, and I'm back to climbing close to my full potential. I have slight tendonitis of my hip flexor, and slight pain on certain exaggerated adduction, but abduction is perfect. I've been dedicated on strength training my legs and hips, which has helped significantly. One thing I still can't do is run. I tried going for an easy 2 miles a few days ago and it was problematic. I would say another 3 or 4 months and I'll be back to running

I'm almost six months post-op and I just passed my back-to-running test with my PT this week. Running takes the longest, I'm told.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. My wife just had the same surgery two weeks ago, she's not on MP but I've kept her updated and it was encouraging for her to hear that people's recoveries have gone relatively smoothly. 

She's had nagging pain and discomfort for a few years now, and in the last year or two she's had some flare-ups that made it very difficult and painful for her to walk. Turns out she had a protrusion on her femur that was rubbing away the labrum in her hip. As the doctor predicted, the flare  ups got progressively worse each time they happened. 

She experienced minimal pain following the surgery and has been taking ibuprofen instead of the stronger pain killers they gave her. She was walking on crutches by the second day and using the stationary bike by the third day. Overall, everything has gone quite smoothly and she is starting PT tomorrow.

The only thing that has been a bit concerning is that she has experienced some tingling sensations in her leg, as if it had fallen asleep, as well as some shooting "electric" sensations down her leg when she touches the sensitive area near the incision site. The surgeon told us that she would experience weird sensations but its somewhat unsettling trying to figure out what is normal and what isn't. If anyone had similar experiences I would appreciate if your insight!

Other than that she is glad to finally have the surgery behind her and is looking forward to being active again once she recovers. It was something that affected her on a daily basis (and obviously more when climbing, hiking, etc.), so there really wasn't any other option. I'll update again once her recovery progresses.

@Phil, I think it's not uncommon to have nerve issues for a bit after surgery due to the post most surgeons jam into your crotch in order to create space in the joint for the procedure. I dealt with numbness on the inside of my thigh for a good month or so but it did return to normal eventually.

Kevin Corrigan wrote:

@Phil, I think it's not uncommon to have nerve issues for a bit after surgery due to the post most surgeons jam into your crotch in order to create space in the joint for the procedure. I dealt with numbness on the inside of my thigh for a good month or so but it did return to normal eventually.

Thanks, Kevin, that's reassuring to hear. I appreciate the response.

Phil, good to hear your wife is doing well. As Kevin said, that numbness/tingling is pretty common. I had the same feeling on my upper quad up until about 2 or 3 weeks ago, since then I haven't noticed it. 

I'm 4 months post-surgery and very happy with the results so far. I had FAI with a labral tear. Tear was repaired and excess bone removed without a micro-fracture. I'm back doing everything I was pre-surgery. I just have to limit and manage activity amounts and intensity. If I push too hard or do too much it can cause some soreness, but that seems to resolve in a matter of days.

I'm able to open my hip in external rotation without it locking now. No longer having to constantly monitor and worry about my hip locking is really amazing.

I had cam type FAI in both my hips. I had surgery with Dr. Burleson of Beacon orthopedics in Cincinnati. For this surgery surgeon is critical, do NOT get an orthapod who does mostly hip replacements and have him repair your labrum. The guy that does it should be doing this type of procedure weekly, literature backs this up with age as principal causes of repair failure/success. I am two months post op from my first hip, and a little over a month on my other hip (which ended up being a lighter repair). I am biking over an hour a day, doing my rehab religiously, and doing some upper body stuff. My hips feel great, a little bit of stiffness in the knee to chest motion, but it is improving well with time. With the amount of biking I have been able to do I am in better cardiovascular shape now then I was before surgery. I feel like I will be able to jog in a month or so, starting with intervals run/walk. I am 21, not overweight, and got the surgery almost immediately when I became symptomatic. I am glad I got the surgery.

Also wanna add Janelle Smiley had this same surgery on both hips and 6 months later climbed the cassin ridge sooooo…

Chris Gummer wrote:

I'm 4 months post-surgery and very happy with the results so far. I had FAI with a labral tear. Tear was repaired and excess bone removed without a micro-fracture. I'm back doing everything I was pre-surgery. I just have to limit and manage activity amounts and intensity. If I push too hard or do too much it can cause some soreness, but that seems to resolve in a matter of days.

I'm able to open my hip in external rotation without it locking now. No longer having to constantly monitor and worry about my hip locking is really amazing.

Did you have any signs of osteoarthritis?

I’m similarly wondering about how long people managed pain/activity before they went for it. I just got the MRI for the right and found out I have a small tear with minimal cartilage damage that makes me a surgery candidate. I’m thinking sooner rather than later, since the more cartilage damage that occurs, the less likely that one is a candidate with good prospects.

Doc is great and had the arthroscopic procedure as his focus in school/residency. Sounds like he does 1+ per week. 

Jordan R wrote:

Did you have any signs of osteoarthritis?

Surgeon said cartilage looked good and didn't required a micro fracture - thankfully! I was told the surgery should hopefully prevent osteoarthritis.

Sprinkle McSparklecams wrote:

I’m similarly wondering about how long people managed pain/activity before they went for it. I just got the MRI for the right and found out I have a small tear with minimal cartilage damage that makes me a surgery candidate. I’m thinking sooner rather than later, since the more cartilage damage that occurs, the less likely that one is a candidate with good prospects.

Doc is great and had the arthroscopic procedure as his focus in school/residency. Sounds like he does 1+ per week. 

I waited for about 10 years from the initial labral tear. My hip got more unpredictable and more problematic so I finally pulled the trigger on surgery this year.