Femoroacetabular Impingement.
That’s a mouthful.
What is it and why am I talking about it?
I’m talking about it because this is the cause of my hip labral tear.
In Femoroacetabular Impingement or FAI, bone spurs develop around the femoral head and/or along the acetabulum. The bone overgrowth causes the hip bones to hit against each other, causing a lot of friction in the joint, rather than to move smoothly. Over time, this can result in the tearing of the labrum and breakdown of articular cartilage.
There are three options of FAI:
Pincer: Where there is overgrowth of bone on the acetabulum, in which the labrum can be crushed under that rim during movement. (This is what I believe I have, I haven’t heard exactly which one I have yet.)
Cam: This is where the femoral head is not smooth, it has extra bone so it cannot move around smoothly inside the joint. (There is one X-Ray where it could be a possibility that I have this.)
Combined: Basically it is just both the pincer and the cam type combined.
Here are a few of my X-Rays taken a couple of months ago. Little did I know that you could see my lady parts until someone pointed it out to me, so they are blocked.
To enlarge them, click on them (if interested, if not interested, nod your head like you know what you are looking at… like I do.)
You can try different things to help alleviate the pain: Rest, NSAIDS, sedentary lifestyle, physical therapy, etc…
However, if these conservative treatments don’t workout, surgery is another option.
They can shave off the extra bone causing the impingement, clean up the labrum and hopefully anchor it back into place.
Here is a video of a surgery to repair a labrum and FAI. It’s graphic and a little bloody, so if you’re squeamish, don’t watch it.
It amazes me that these surgeons know what they’re looking at, and that people can recover from this…
Just a little education blog post on what’s going on with my body, I hope you guys enjoyed it.