Monday, May 19, 2008

Revision Hip Arthroscopy/ Failed Hip Arthroscopy

I always wonder how many other people have fallen into this predicament as well. What I have noticed is that these are key words that often bring people to my blog. I have no way to really keep track, but often I will scan my sitemeter which will tell me the search words used by readers. It doesn't always work, for example, "Landsickness" through google brings up my blog, o the top 10 (I checked), but so do other key words, like FAI, hipscope, hip arthroscopy,psoas....and my all time favorite, "Bryan Kelly hipscope", my blog is #1 on google if you put in those words. This is quite embarrassing as well as pretty funny, if you ask me! (If he knew, he probably wouldn't agree!)

So, my point is, I was curious, who has had a failed hip arthroscopy? or failed FAI surgery? or failed surgery for a labral tear? Who has retorn their labrum?And even more importantly....why...what reason were you given??
Now would be a great time for all lurkers to share their story, so we can all learn from each other.
Me? An conservative surgeon who didn't want to take down too much bone if it was unnecessary. We found out the hard way that it indeed was necessary, but a happy ending for all involved parties!!!

221 comments:

1 – 200 of 221   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

i think this is how i found you! i was looking for people who have had more than one scope.
soccermom

carrie said...

I am a Dr. Kelly Pt and had surgery this past January and have continued to have problems. I had a labral deb., psoas release, and and a synovectomy. I am in the process right now of finding out whether or not my surgery failed and whether or not I need a revision to correct any FAI that was not seen and corrected on my first surgery. Just like you I am a 27 year old female and from Florida, but I still live there.

Susie said...

Carrie, what are your current symptoms? Did you have any FAI addressed? I'm sorry you are still having trouble after so long, what does dr.k say?

carrie said...

Hi Susie, I did not have any FAI addressed in my first surgery. Right now y symptoms are the same as pre-op. Really bad butt pain, lateral hip pain, and just overall a deep joint soreness. I also have a brusing and pinching feeling on my ischial tuberosity. I never had bad groin pain, so that always confused everybody, but I did have an anterior tear. My ITB is still a little sore to the touch, like a bruise. I have had no problems with the psoas release, it has been totally fine and in fact the pain pre-op and the snapping an popping I had pre-op is now gone. Thats been the only good outcome of the surgery. Dr. Kelly found a huge amount of synovitis in the scope and has been really concerned with it since. He sent me to a rheumetologist, but everything has panned out via bloodwork so were not sure whats up with that. He thinks that the synovitis has definitely come back and with a vengence, but why we don't know. Dr. K is kind of perplexed if you will at the moment in trying to figure out why I am in so much pain still. He said he has a feeling there is something still going on in the joint cause I just had another steriod injection and it gave me about 80% pain relief. I am going to have a ct scan in June when I come up there next and we'll see where he goes from there.
Carrie

Susie said...

Wow Carrie, what a mess. Sorry you are dealing with all that crap. You think you have found the magic solution to your problem and then things dont go as planned. I hope he can figure out what the problem is soon. Keep us posted!

Jess said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I don't know if you'd call my surgery a failed one, I'm kind of in limbo. Labral tear debridement that turned out not really to be a tear but fraying/rubbing. Small cam impingement that I was not told about may need to be addressed in the future. Pain level not bad, worse after long periods of sitting. I do not have continual pain, just get the odd bit of achiness and nerve type zaps in my thigh. My muscles have suffered and have some ongoing glute problems that flare up with exercise, but muscles can be stretched and strengthened :-)
So, hopefully I will be able to last a few years, fit in a couple of sprogs before I need anything else to be done, fingers crossed :-)

amanda leigh said...

Hi, I am a 27 year old female from Florida as well with snapping hip syndrome in both hips. The right started first then the left. They both hurt and snap the same. I have had more Physical therapy and injection, anti inflammatory meds then most people do in a life time in the past two years. i had a Arthrogram MRI that read normal.....but my doctor disagreed, so he thought i would benefit from a Hip scope that I just had done 2 weeks ago. When he got in there he found my labrum to be completely torn so he repaired that as well as releasing my psoas tendon and cleaning out some loose bodies that was around the hip. He did the right hip first. I am scared to have the left one done now...because my pain on the outside of my right hip is sooo much worst. He choose not to do anything to the I.T band while he was in surgery when that was the original plan. He told my family that it would had been too much for me at one time to handle and because he found my labrum was torn he thought that I would get release of pain and pooping from that. The pain in my groin is gone but I still have snapping on the outside part and cry because of how painful it is it feels like someone is burning me, or stabbing me. Should i have the left side done? will the outside part of the hip ever stop hurting? What is FAV? I have a arthrogram schedule in one week for the left side but I'm thinking of canceling it. I just got married 3 months ago and was in so much pain on my wedding day...and can't enjoy what newlyweds should be enjoying. Do you have any suggestion or answer or maybe what I should do for my next step? I feel like P.t is only aggravating my problems . Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I had my left hip scoped for a labrum tear. My doctor said I would be up and going in three months. Well, 10 months later my pain is worse and in a different location. Originally my pain was in the groin area, but now it has migrated to the front of my left hip and sometimes the outside portion of the hip even feels sore. Walking is getting more difficult. I went to another surgeon for a 2nd opinion and he said it was arthritis, which I strongly doubt. I have not been back to the original surgeon....any recommendations?

Scott

Susie said...

Scott,
My first reply when I get an email/comment like our is "do/ did you have FAI?" Is is so important for the FAI to be addressed, since it often is the cause of the labral tear. What is unusual about your case it seems is that the pain is different, I think for most of us with failed surgery, our original symptoms returned, not different post-op symptoms. Have you tried PT?And def. a third opinion!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Susie....I did have a little FAI, but it wasn't severe. The odd thing is when the docs look at the x-ray, they can't really see anything. I am going to try PT next week, so hopefully that will help. Also, taking anti-inflammatory medicine. I have never been so frustrated in all my life. I have never had any issues with my hips, but now I can't seem to get well! Thanks for the words of encouragement :-) I am convinced that something is just a little off and that I will soon be able to enjoy the little things in life, like walking....and believe me, I will appreciate them MUCH more now!

Scott

Anonymous said...

I would like to know whether anyone has essentially completely recovered after hip arthroscopy for a labral tear.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have completely recovered from a labral tear and subsequent repair on my right hip. The healing took awhile (4 months) but now the hip feels better than ever. However, I also experienced a "failed arthroscopy" on my left hip.

The first arthroscopy on the left hip was performed for a combination cam/pincer impingement, synovectomy, and labral tear. Even though the tear was repaired, the hip felt very loose. It started subluxing a couple of weeks post op. A year later, a revision arthroscopy was performed. A loose body was removed from the joint along with a capsular plication, and a new posterior labral tear was debrided. (The posterior tear was too damaged to be repaired.) I feel sooo much better now. I just wish the instability/loose capsule was caught the first time.
The recovery from the revision surgery is really rough. Fortunately revisions are rare.

Unknown said...

I am a 53 year old male who had right hip pain for about 4 years. After going every day for about 6 months with pain, I saw an ortho doc and a MRI confirmed a labral tear. I believe most repairs are just the removal of the tear and not really a repair to the labrum. Because of my age and the reality of the labrum wearing down, the removal of more labral cartilage only made the joints closer than ever and such is where I'm at today. Not walking very good 3 1/2 months after surgery. The pain is somewhat better but the movement of the hip is worse. I was told that a replacement hip is what’s next if I decide to do it because of this fact. Slim to no cartilage between femur an acetabulam....still on pain meds and contemplating what to do...

Susie said...

A labral repair will repair the labrum, a debridement will cut out the torn piece. Not all tears can be repaired. I would first check into impingement before having a THR, which is usually the cause of a failed scope, the impingement was not addressed so the cause of the tear is still there, and you remain in pain.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Dec 2007 i started experiencing a feeling like both my hips were going to dislocate. i went throught 1 orthopedist, PT, MRI, xrays, and then bilateral injections. I was finally referred to a sports orthopedist. It took six weeks from the beginning of my seeing him to my surgery, that was how long i was waiting to see my first orthopedisst. My first surgery went well, they debrided a labral tear, and also removed damaged cartilage from the superior dome of my hip. afterward the pain wa horrible, especially when i started doing sports, eventually the pain went away after the new cartilage was shaped.... less than 4 months later i had my other hip done, and this time they found something totally different, cam FAI and a labral tear. they performed the osteoplasty, and also debrided the labral tear. it's been almost 3 months since my left hip arthroscopy and i am still in pain, and can't even do low impact sports such as swimming or biking. doctors have had me on narcotics, steroids, and now NSAID's, but none of this is giving me much relief. I need this to resolve itsself soon especially since i am supposed to work at a camp this summer! I am a senior in high school, (we needed to have this done before i entered college) and this was not how i was expecting my senior year to be like, 2 months on crutches, a lot of pain, and missing nearly 20 days of school because of the pain and surgeries. i don't know if i can say that my latest surgery is a failure, because they found something wrong with me, but i am still in pain.

~Kate~

Susie said...

Kate-
Are you in PT? The right kind of manual work is key to a good, pain free recovery. I had forgotten how important this was until now, I am on vacation with my family, my brother is 7 weeks out from his scope and having tons of soft tissue issues and pain. We are working throug it with a lot of stetching, joint mobilizations and exercises.

Anonymous said...

not really, they put me on homecare.

Kate

Total Hip said...

I think there are a lot more failed surgeries than we all know. If you consider all the marketing that goes especially into THR only the happy outcomes are highlighted.

This is my story. 2 years ago at age 45 started with right groin pain without any known injury. After six months of seeing various orthos to determine if it was my back or was it my hip I was finally diagnosed after MRI arthrogram that I had a torn right labrum. I had arthroscopic surgery in March 2008 and was pronounced a success. After initial short term recovery I started to have increasing groin and leg pain and developed a limp by June 2008. After seeing if time would make an improvement I went back to my arthroscopic surgeon in August 2008. New X-rays showed that I had gone from none to full blown osteoarthritis in just a few months. Two surgeons confirmed this diagnosis and concurred that my only option was total hip replacement. I had THR in NOvember 2008 with the minimally invasive anterior appproach during which I had the rare complication of fracturing my femur through the greater trochanter. The fracture healed post surgically with minimal weight bearing for six weeks. I then went through physical therapy with great results and was doing very well for several months. In mid-May I started all over again with thigh pain that intensifies with activity, going up steps and when I hold any weight or pivot. I have had every test to rule out prosthetic failure, infection or prothestic loosening. Now the doctor is thinking possible psoas problems even though I have never had this before. I am at my wits end and tired of doctors, tests and chronic pain. Dr. Kelly didn't do my arthroscopic surgery but did consult when I had problems and recommended THR. I am essentially back to square one in terms of resolution and return to normal life activities--not easy when you have five year old twins that need attention.

Anonymous said...

7-6-09. I am 50 male, had left THR in 11/04 due to osteoarthritis and root cause probably hip dysplasie combined with too much hardcourt singles tennis. Have had great result but always knew the right hip would be coming up in the future.

In mid 2008, while playing tennis (doubles) started getting sharp pains (almost like being stabbed with a knive) with certain movements, primarily in transition - getting in and out of the car, getting up and down out of a chair etc.). Had an MRI and two opinions and both Orthos suggested hip arthroscopy to remove "loose" cartilage that was supposedly causing problem. My surgeon said I should get some relief immediately and be back on the tennis court in 2-4 weeks.

Had my arthroscopy on 4/3/09. By 4/17/09 at my first follow up, was I not only not feeling any better, I was starting to feel pain I hadn't felt since 5 years before with my other hip arthritis. Dr. said to give it two more weeks. In next two weeks I had full blown arthritis keeping my up at night and making me unable to be very ambulatory. At next follow-up we scheduled my right THR for 6/12/09. So far after 24 days, I am progressing well, used walker for 4 days, then my cane for the next 15, and hung my cane on my walker after day 19. Don't know why but this THR has hurt a lot more than the first. I know I'm 5 years older but this has been much tougher than I remembered.

Regarding failed arthroscopy. Doc. could not give me an explanation on why that would cause my arthritis to go crazy. All he could say was that if I hadn't had arthritis, I would have gotten a lot of relief from the arthroscopy as the procedure was successful and he removed all the frayed and torn cartilage from my right hip.

If I could have a "do-over", I would have skipped the arthroscopy altogether as for the most part I was able to live with that pain, and at least I was able to stay fairly active with that pain. My arthritis would have eventually flared up again but may have been several years down the road. Once I'm rolling again, I may feel more thankful that I got the THR out of the way and can now go on with my active lifestyle (swim 2-3 days a week plus doubles tennis 2 days a week). The whole arthroscopy was such a waste of time and money.

Susie said...

If I were 50 I also would just beg for a total hip replacement and hope to be done with all of this. At 28, I need more options! I wish you all the best with your "new hips"!

Anonymous said...

Curious to know how "re-tears" are being diagnosed. I am 6 months post op from just a repair and it feels exactly how it did pre-op. The surgeon says an MRI won't show a re-tear and the only way would be to re-scope... anyone have any other experience? thanks!

Anonymous said...

wow, i am someone scheduled to have this surgery after a car crash 8 months ago with at least one of the hips only getting worse, my mri and my mra's dont show a tear but with my symptoms, pain and lack of mobility they are certain i have FAI as well as having my ligamentum capitus femoris torn off the bone at one end...(there is a little piece of bone they CAN see where it should not be, near where the ligamnet attaches to the femur)....so why doesnt it all show?? is a ct scan any better? i read about having it done 'frog legged' or 'crosstabled'...does any imaging place do that? makes sense to me if i can walk and sit straight, that the problem may not show with a straight view, it HURTS and LOCKS when I rotate it, wouldnt taking a pic of it rotated HELP?
I ahve been looking for success stories on hear and as far as Im concerned there are none.... boooo

Anonymous said...

Hy there, i'm Max from Italy. I had a bad car crash in 2001, hip and acetabular broken. Now i am 28, i suffer of artritis and my joint is creating a big ostephite in the back sides.

I fell almost ok, i can walk for many hours and dance at the club, just little pain.
No more sport except swimming and some gym.

But what i should do? Remove the FAI or stay like that?

I don't know!

Please any raccomadations welcome!

[IMG]http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/gioiellideltempo/Pastorino_09.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/gioiellideltempo/SCAN0013.jpg[/IMG]

Susie said...

There are plenty of success stories, those people don't have the need to blog and vent and write excessively about their experience. I had both hips done and one of them is great, it has been 2 years since the surgery.

Max in Italy, I can't tell you what to do, although I can tell you that bone spurs in the joint will cause a lot of pain, but you need to figure out what caused them to grow back and how can you guarantee that they won't come back again.

Max from Italy said...

this osteophite is stuck between the femor and the hip, and it has taken 6 years to grow as big as a peanut.
It should grow up slower if i would do a less active life.

The doctor here in Italy want to surgery by arthoscopy soon, even if he isn't completly able to remove the backsides ostheophite, but the frontside one. Anyone can suggest me a good doctor, even in the States, who is able to remove the backside osthoephites.

I will need to surgery in the next 5 years, I'II be 33 old, and arthroscopy is my only chance i've got instead of THR.

Thanks

Susie said...

If it needs to come out and you are willing to travel, Bryan Kelly in New York City

h said...

I have been diagonosed with a labral tear in my right hip. But since having an artherogram (the injection included steriods and other goodies) I have had hardly any discomfort -over 6 months now. With just weeks to go before an arthroscopy I am urgently considering pulling out. I am spoilt with a top surgeon and BUPA healthcare, but if it hardly hurts anymore maybe it is simply a risk. Any opinions? The discomfort got pretty bad over 2 or three years prior to diagnosis. I am 39 and osteo arthritis runs in the family.

Susie said...

h- you may want to consider postponing the surgery, some poeple do get significant relief from the steroids. You may want to speak with your surgeon about this, also, do you have FAI, or just a labral tear, it may chnage things depending on the answer

Charlie said...

I've been looking for ages for info on whether people ever need second surgery. My doc recommended surgery for impingment after just looking at x-rays. He didn't say there would be any chance of it not being successful. I was on crutches for 4 weeks then had a little bit of pain after I started walking again but it eased off so I was really pleased. After about another 3 weeks it got really sore (worse than before the surgerry). I see my physio and the surgeon in 2 weeks, I'm really worried that I'll need more surgery because I'm supposed to be starting uni in September and cannot miss it!

Sarah said...

I am 17 years old and just had an arthroscopy on my right hip for an impingement and a pretty bad labral tear. The pinching in my buttocks and the groin pain are still present (in abundance!) post-op. The pain only worsened with physical therapy, and I developed a very noticeable limp (more so than before surgery). Does any of this sound familiar to anyone, and if so, am I looking at a failed arthroscopy or more surgery? This is really a pain in the butt. Pun intended.

Susie said...

Sarah- how long ago was your surgery? The first 6 weeks can be tough. But, most people with failed surgery (that I have spokn to) report that "the pre-op pain came back". I'm sorry that you have to go through this.

Anonymous said...

I had a hip scope in March 2010. My surgeon said I had 3 different pretty bad tears. I had a fairly large amount of bone removed also due to FAI - Cam type. I also had a synovectomy and bursectomy. I thought I was doing great. I finally got released to start walking for exercise, but was told to stay on flat surface as I have some acetablum version problems remaining. After walking a few times, I tried walking outside which wasn't flat -- my mistake. It's been almost 5 weeks and I feel exactly the way I did before surgery. My surgeon thinks it's just tendonitis, but I think it's another tear. Any chance of an MRA picking up on the tear? I know my first MRA didn't see all three of mine the first time. Thanks -- Kim

Anonymous said...

I had fai surgery 3 months ago and my groin pain has come back. Hurts when my leg moves and sleep like pre-op pain. I have been doing PT and the PT person says probably just tight groin muscle. he does stretch it and it feels better then the pain comes back. I also went to a great Doctor at University Buffalo. All he does are these surgery even for pro sports players. I am hoping that its still taking time for the surgery to heal but im getting impatient and worried. Sitting makes it worse.

Lilly said...

Hey guys,
basically I have the same story. Last summer at age 26 I had an arthroscopic debridement to clean up a nasty tear. I remember as soon as I woke up from surgery I could feel the difference! 3 months later, my hip felt great and I was able to go back to the gym, run, etc. At 6 months post up, I woke up one day and noticed my hip started to ache again. Within about 2 weeks, it felt exactly as it did post-op. As time went on, it began to feel even worse than before. The surgeon suspected there was an extension of the tear and it was confirmed on an arthrogram-MRI. 2 weeks ago I just had a second arthroscopic debridement along with an osteoplasty of the femoral head. The femoral head didn't look too bad on X-rays but I guess it's better safe to be sorry because we don't know for sure what is causing the tearing.

This time though, I still can't tell if it worked. I know it's early but I don't feel a difference yet. If that isn't bad enough, my hip seems like it now rattles a bit...there's some 'clunking' going on. I'm still doing protected weight bearing with crutches but hope it clears up soon as I need two legs for my job!

An interesting note...I had found a paper on failed arthoscopies that said something like if you have hip dysplasia (such as myself), arthroscopic debridement alone many times doesn't suffice and a second surgery involving osteoplasty may be needed.

Unknown said...

All of this is making me very sad. I had a horrible superior labral tear, ripped the cartilage right off the bone. It took me a year to get a proper diagnosis, then I had to wait 4 months to have surgery to repair the tear, December 2008. I don't have any impingement and my femoral heads are not malformed.

Things felt pretty good up until about 3 months after surgery. 6 months after surgery, since I was still having some pain, my Dr. suggested I stop going to physical therapy. The pain never went away.

Had an MRI arthogram 8 months after my surgery, and everything looked perfect. Then April of this year(2010) I decided that something had to change, because aside from my hip pain, my left knee was beginning to feel like it was being pulled to the left. So, my surgeon referred me to a physiatrist. She put me on Diclofenac, and I began to make excellent progress in physical therapy. Then, 3 months ago, something happened, possibly at physical therapy. And the pain has been horrendous and unresponsive to meds ever since.

Had another MRI arthrogram 10/29/10 (my 3rd). Results were inconclusive, but no tear was detected. It was also mentioned to me that I am showing early signs of arthritis in the joint (yay, just what every 33 yr old wants to hear). Went over the MRI results with my physiatrist and a hip specialist who didn't perform my surgery. All results were inconclusive...apparently things are still a mystery, and now I have some strange foreign body in the cartilage, but it's not a bone, doesn't show up in X-Rays.

The hip specialist gave me very little hope, in fact, he made me feel that going back in would probably be a mistake.

I'm considering getting a 2nd or even a 3rd opinion. But, it seems a lot of the data available online, is not in favor of revision surgery. I'm frustrated and I'm not sure I know what to do next.

Susie said...

Pam- yur case sounds complicated and my guess is that despite what you have been told, you do have some sort of FAI. I would try to get an opinion from one of the top hip scope docs, who see alot more FAI than most OS. If they agree that you don't have FAI, then I would believe it. Email me if you need help with that.

anonymous said...

I am a 22 year old male and I had a hip arthroscopy done on my left hip after about 7 months of pain. The surgey was for FAI - included debridement, microfracture, removal of loose bodies, and removal of the extra cam lesion.

I'm 7 months post-op and definitely feel better than before. However, at times I do notice some soreness in the joint and am worried taht it might be early stage arthritis. I've also had surgery on my right hip, done about 6 weeks ago, but they didn't remove the bone spur. I'm hoping everything works out but no one seems to know what will happen long term...

Samual said...

Hello,

Nice article has been posted. i really enjoyed reading your this article and also did get lots of good points from here. thanks for sharing such article here. i would like to see some information related to Arthoscopy hospitals in Israel here in this article. keep on posting such article here in future too.

Thanks,

lizzi6 said...

Hello,

I am writing because I'm at a lose with my current hip situation. I was hoping for some insight.

I had a scope on my left hip in early August of 2011. It had gone undiagnosed for a significant period of time. the surgery included a bursecotomy, a labral debridement, FAI bone trimming and a psoas tendon release. the recovery was not at all how I expected. yes, I know it's a slow recovery, but this was a snails pace. PT was steady but, I really struggled with Pain and inflammation. I was on 2 crutches for 6 wks, one crutch for 3 wks and then used a cane for 2+ months ( I am still using it!) during the first month of recovery, my right hip piped up and joined the party. A labral tear was was debrided and FAI bone trimming was performed in a right hip scope In early November 2011. We caught the problem early it seemed and that surgery was a wild success compared to the left hip.

Now, I have had continued pain and intense swelling that will not respond to NASAID's on the left side. An MRA last week shows no re-tear of the labrum. What it did show, was an inordinate amount of inflammation. This is puzzling, if there is no tear, what is irritating and inflaming the joint? I am at a complete lose. The joint in most ways feels worse then it did before surgery. It is loose feeling, I prefer to hold it while I walk to add some stability, I can't sit upright for longer then an hour, and I have shooting pain down the front of the leg, with numbness in my heal (?) as I understand a lot of work was done in the joint during surgery, and so a longer recovery is necessary. but, I am how 5 months post op and I'm wondering when do you stop and say, it should have healed, or I should be feeling better by now?

I do have a fantastic doctor, I completely trust him. He is supposed to call this coming week. My question is about other possibilities, Arthritis (the dreaded) or something that an MRA wouldn't pick up. I am a healthy 28 year old woman, a THR is not ideal in the least. Should I get a second opinion? I really don't want to live a life in Pain!

elena said...

Lizzie,
So sorry that you had so much discomfort! I really cant add any info due to being less than a week post-op. I keep waiting to feel better; however each day brings a different pain or ache. My thigh pain is very annoying. Today, i am having discomfort reclining in my recliner. It seems as though recovery from this surgery can be very discouraging. Hope you feel better soon!
Elens

lizzi6 said...

Elena,

Thank you for the sympathy! and you have mine as well, I really is a tough in the beginning. Hang in there and be nice to yourself. You will get through it :)

Shahzad said...

Good job man! Hospitals for Arthoscopy in Turkey

Anonymous said...

So happy to find this, now I am hoping people are still reading/checking this blog.

4 weeks ago I had a cyst causing an impingement in the hip and the DR also found a partial labrum tear. Went ahead with the arthroscopy. 2 weeks post-op I felt pretty darn great with little pain. I "pushed" my rehab exercises a bit and the next day I found I have a "new" extremely sharp pain. Lateral movements in my leg inwards causes a extremely painful sharp pain. DR thinks it's soft tissue that has "moved", while the operating DR says it's normal.

4 weeks now after post-op and 2 weeks after feeling the new pain and the pain has not decreased at all. I am wondering what everyone thinks? Dr says very rare for the anchors to detach. Walking straight (small/medium light steps) and walking up and down stairs is fine...it's whenever there's the slightest movement laterally inward.

What does everyone think? Normal? Fully torn labrum? Thanks for everyone's opinions...

Anonymous said...

Hey everyone,
I had left hip arthroscopy for FAI (mixed cam/pincer involvement, labial tear) at the end of Feb. '12. I was originally healing very well and feeling better almost every day... until 8 weeks post op.
Two weeks ago I tripped over a gas pump line while pumping my gas. I should've fallen, but caught myself. My left hip popped very loudly and I instantly felt extreme pain to the point where I was doubled over screaming. I am still having a lot of pain (almost worse than before surgery, pain at night too). It feels like a deep stabbing or burning pain. It is around most of the day. Ibuprofen helps some for a shot time, but it always comes back. The pain is deep in the joint and sometimes it feels like I can't take a full stride... like I'm being stopped by something.
What are the odds that I could re injure myself 8 weeks post op just by twisting quickly the wrong way?
Tiffany

lizzi6 said...

I just wanted to give a summation to my situation for those of you who are struggling to find answers when surgery/recovery doesn't turn out how it's supposed to.

It has been a year since I had the original surgery on the left hip. I had more then the ordinary amount of pain, inflammation and difficulty healing from the surgery then it seemed others, the "normal" people. But without time my surgeon could not adequately assess wether I may just take longer the heal then most or that there was a problem with the process. During this time, I tried pushing myself harder through pain and amping up PT, I tried quitting PT altogether and laying on the couch all day. I tried acupuncture, creams, drinks, diet changes, message, muscular skeletal manipulation, and a new PT. all the while trying to decide if I was just a whimp or if something was still wrong with the hip. After 10 months of suffering in pain and being unable to work, my doc decided it was time to see what was going on.

It turned out my labrum (the one he repaired) instead of healing like it should into heathy cartilage healed into scar tissue which caught when I walked and irritated the joint and surrounding tissues. He at first tried to remove the scaring but it went all the way through the labrum. so he replaced the labrum with an allograft from a cadaver.

Now, I am doing amazingly well. I never reached this point the last go around and I am only 11 wks out from the operation. I can walk cane free and strength train pain free too. I want to emphasize that this procedure aims to solve the problem but it is often imperfect . Even if your surgeon does everything text book correct (as mine did) you body has to do the rest. Many people have failed scopes, complications and trials trying to figure out how to get well. Hang in there. There can be a light at the end of the tunnel!

Melanie said...

Tiffany, I am curious to know how you are doing and if you ended up re-injuring yourself or if you got better. I am almost 4 weeks postop and feeling amazing! I'd really like to push my rehab but I don't want any setbacks. Thanks, Melanie

Mel g said...

Hi Lizzie- I'm curious to know if your first surgery was straight forward or if it was a bad tear. Did you also have any sort of osteoplasty? I am about 4.5 weeks out from a straight forward repair and I have felt great until recently but most of my pain is in the tfl and it band and trochanter bursa. I don't think it's the actual joint but I'm not sure. Did you have bad joint pain right away? You can email me directly at greenmelmel@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Hi everyone. 40 yr old. I'm day 7 post-op from right hip arthroscopy.I had a compete labral tear, cyst, cam and pincer corrections. I have had no pain at all yet. Just a little muscle stiffness buttock, calves, hamstring etc. More from walking 50% weight bearing on crutches. It did take 2 days for my blood pressure to go up. It is normally low and then dropped bit lower. So I was very dizzy and nauseous. The left hip is getting worse and I look forward to that surgery in 6 weeks. HSS in NYC. Its a bit rushed to get you discharged, but I'm very pleased thus far.

Suzie said...

Hello All - I am status post a right labral hip tear in mid January. My post op course was uneventful and I as doing fabuously unti abou a week ago. Out of the blue the pain I was experiecing before surgery in my groin and outer hip/thigh region has returned. At physical therapy this evening I could feel an obvious clicking when the therapist was stretching me out. I am worried at this point that I may have a subsequent tear or that the surgery was not successful. Has anyone else experienced this during the post op course and if so was if just part of the healing process or should I be worried?

Richard Jackson said...

Your expeirence sounds exactally like mine. My surgery was Oct 31st and I still have a very painful limp usually after being on my feel for more than about 15 minutes. Others I have found say you get better between 3 and 4 mo. and recovered about 6 mo. My surgeon also said 12 week recovery? I am very frustrated also. I see my surgeon tomorrow and I plan on asking for a post op MRI. I am also going to start the process of getting a second opinion. This just doesn't feel right to me.

Anonymous said...

I am beyond depressed. I had a labral tear repair in 3/12. I was also found to have a snapping tendon that was released, and some reshaping of the bones. I have a terrible time walking, esp standing up and starting to walk once I'm sitting or lying down. I have chronic pain. All exercises hurt. I have tried PT, chiropractic and acupuncture. Nothing helps. I do feel to blame tho'. 3.5 months post-surgery I went to the beach, and then shortly thereafter, I went dancing. I'm 50, so shouldn't. But I was a former ballet dancer and did yoga 4x per week, so felt I would be fine.

Kelley Clink said...

Hi all. Had arthroscopy 5 weeks ago for labral tear and FAI. Was doing very well until last week, when I started to come off crutches. Now I am having muscle spams, intense pain, and I'm back on two crutches and my brace. Terrified that something is wrong, as I've been taking it easy for several days now with very little improvement. PT says I haven't been walking around enough to have tendonitis. I can't do ANY of the exercises I have been doing, not even the ones I did first week post-op. Anyone had a big setback like this trying to come off crutches? Any advice? I am going in to see the PA tomorrow. I'm terrified. It was 2 years before I even got diagnosed, and I am so sick of being in pain.

Anonymous said...

I had arthroscopic surgery on both hips 2 years ago. I had the hip balls rounded, the labral tears cleaned up, the cam impingements removed, and I had microfracture on one side. I got pregnant 5 months after the 2nd surgery. I was in so much pain before surgery that I never could have endured a pregnancy, so I'm grateful that I was able to have my little boy afterwards. When I went for my 2 year appointment in the fall & had an MRI done, they found out the impingements had grown back & the labral tears were back as well. I just had two more surgeries completed. Along with the same things as last time, they also removed 2 loose bodies which turned out to be sutures from the first surgeries. They had popped out and then scar tissue had grown on top of them. The only good news was that scar tissue had grown back where I had the microfracture done last time. I had a great surgeon, so I don't think he messed up. We hypothesize that the sutures popped out when I was in labor with my child. We're hoping to get pregnant as soon as I finish this round of PT in June. I'm praying the damage doesn't come back again since I feel like I've spent so much time with recovery.

Steve said...

I'm a 28 year old male and I had my left side done in August 2012 and right side in February 2013 by Dr. McGrath in Buffalo. My left side had a severe labral tear, along with combination FAI osteoplasty. My right side, the labral tissue was beginning to fray, so there was a cleanup, along with the combination osteoplasties. I am struggling with the left side to date, my right side is fine. The pain returned in the left side at around the one month mark, my right side has not experienced this. It's frustrating to ride my bike and hours later, the left side completely flares up for days, and feels like pre-op. Before all of this, I rode 200+ miles/week in the spring through fall. Now, I'm lucky if I can manage 50 miles/week.

I had another opinion, as the 6 month x-ray showed regenerated bone and narrowing that may be the issue. The new doctor said give it the full year and keep up PT, which I'm willing to do, but the pain is frustrating. Another thing to note is that my right side is actually stronger than the left. I have constant anterior rotations of my left pelvis, and my right side glutes are clearly stronger and visibly larger than the left. I'm hoping if I can fix this weakness, it will solve my pain, it's all I have to hope for at this point.

Anonymous said...

I had FAI surgery, labral repair, a synovectomy and a ligamentum teres repair surgery at the beginning of january. I am still in agonizing pain. The pain in my groin is gone, but i habe pain on the outside of my hip and buttock pain. If i sit for more than 10 min, the front of my hip gets really tight and i can barely walk. Is this normal? When can i expect the pain to go away? Can anyone offer some advice? I am in pain every day and i walk with a limp that i cant seem to fix. Someone please help me!!!!! :(

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I am in such a deep depression right now. I have had hip pain for over 2 years, have seen 7 different doctors about, have had numerous injections, and most recently had a cam and pincer FAI surgery and labral detachment repair (the surgeon said my labrum had folded back onto itself). I am 8 weeks post-op today and in the same amount of pain I was in pre-op. I feel like I am never going to be okay again. The pain is just unbearable. I cannot function like a normal person at all. I am supposed to be back at work now, the pain is too much for me to even consider being on my feet for 8-10 hours a day. I have been trying to find a desk job, but that doesn't seem to be panning out, either...plus it hurts to sit upright for that long as well. I don't know what to do now. I can't even go grocery shopping without it ending with me near tears. I just want to cry. I just want to be normal again.
-Pam

lizzi6 said...

Pam,

I, and a lot of other people know how you feel. I'm so sorry. Reading you post reminds me of the drug hazy agony I went through last year. All I can say is be patient with your body, Get a new doctor if they arn't taking your pain seriously and get help. Serioulsly! I went on antidepressants right before my second hip scope. They helped me pull through this mess.

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry to hear all your story's but on the other hand happy to know I am not the only one out here!
I am 41 yr old in the uk,was told I have fai in both hips 4yrs ago now but was too heavy to get the surgery done nearly 400lbs(26 stones)! But lost a lot of weight to get my right hip fixed(cam and pincer) in nov 12,at first it felt so good right away I was flying so to speak even the OT released me early as I was doing so well,I joined a gym and was exercising 6 days a week ect,even with one bad hip! Then slowly at first it started to ache and about 7weeks ago now it became bad so I had to stop the gym and just go back to gentle walking but I have even had to stop that now and am basically stuck on a couch all day doing nothing just taking 2different sorts of pain meds I notice a difference in my "fixed" hip daily I can do less by the day and at the rate it is going I will be in a wheelchair by Xmas....... No lie.
I don't see the surgeon for another 2 weeks yet so I don't know what is going on....it is great to hear others do have problems also
Good luck to you all x

Anonymous said...

My daughter is 15. Tore her right hip labrum last year playing soccer. She had surgery in march in buffalo to repair the labrum with 3 anchors and to fix the impingment. 6 weeks postop she fell during PT and has been in pain ever since. She had another MRI early August and it did not show a re-tear but did show that her capsule was stretched which is what her doctor assumed since she slipped. He advised her to join her school soccer team again and get out and play. And she did. Been playing 70 min games for 2 weeks now. Still in pain but has all her strength back.
At this point we don't know what to do. Her surgeon is very well known orthopedic in the buffalo area. We travel 4 hours to see him. He said they can do another surgery to retighten the capsule but he rather not and wants to see if it goes away on it's own.
Has anyone here gone thru anything similar? Well a stretched capsule cause pain? She runs and sprints like pre-injury. And will it eventually heal on it's own?

Susie said...

A capsule cannot tighten back on its own. An u stable hip due to capsular laxity will be very painful regardless of strength. I have had a lot of experience with this and I would say you may want to get a second opinion to assess the labrum as well and make sure it is not contributing to any instability. Best of luck

Susie said...

A capsule cannot tighten back on its own. An u stable hip due to capsular laxity will be very painful regardless of strength. I have had a lot of experience with this and I would say you may want to get a second opinion to assess the labrum as well and make sure it is not contributing to any instability. Best of luck

Anonymous said...

Thanks. I'm not sure what it is going on. Nor how much it really bothers her. You wouldn't be able to tell by watching her play. She sprints and kicks like pre injury. She says she just painful at times. We go back to doctor in three weeks for checkup. Mri was good. Showed some mild fraying of the labrum but was told that was just normal with wear and tear and wasn't causing this pain. She doesn't really want another operation at this point and miss another full soccer season again. She says she plays thru the pain fine and doesn't think about it. But it sucks as a parent to keep seeing her go thru that.

Anonymous said...

Hello and thanks for reading. Question. My daughter is two weeks post-op from torn labrum and fai surgery. She still complains of her groin catching when she uses her exercise bike. We have a two week postop with doc tomorrow but just wondering if this can still be normal so soon after surgery. Other than catching sensation all seems well.

Susie said...

Was catching her only symptom pre-op? Could be a snapping psoas that a PT can address

Anonymous said...

Catching was her main symptom. Both inside and outside hip. Of course a ton of pain also. Lots of popping noises also. Mri arthogram with 3t machine showed a subtle tear in labrum. Due to her age and her being an inspiring athlete we decided surgery was probably best. She had her right hip done in march hence my above threads. After she returned to soccer her right hip finally started to feel better. Of course now that she is on crutches her right hip is sore and pops every now and then but we shake that off as normal since it's working double time. She officialy starts pt next week in a pool for a month before she starts land exercises. She is just worried about the catching still going on. She doesn't want to miss another important season. She was working on a scholarship in soccer and is now afraid that she might have to let the dream go. It's funny how much changes is one years time.. healthy 15 year old athlete to now two hip surgerys.

Susie said...

It's still early in recovery so I would continue icing and wait. I'm sure you found an excellent surgeon for her since she is an aspiring athlete so the job should be done correctly

Brook said...

I have had failed FAI repair. One on both of my hips in 2011. After the first surgery I gained a new burning pain below my buttocks and posterior knee. My hips did pretty good for about 6 months and the pain gradually came back now leaving me worse than i was before. I see a dr in St Louis. He seems real good but is stumped to why my pain has returned. I have exhausted physical therapy and injections which neither gave relief. Which diagnostically should have. My back has been ruled out. During surgeries they found very large labral tear, major CAM impingement, and arthritis was found on both hips. I am now considering THR. I am now 34. Basically home bound. In pain whether I move or not. Any suggestions?

Susie said...

Sorry to hear about this. Had anyone checked your hamstring? Tendonitis/ tendinosis is extremely common. I was just able to correct the return of hamstring tendonitis with eccentric hamstring exercises. Ask your PT to help you or feel free to email me and I can send you pics. There is an excellent hip surgeon in St Louis, prob one of the best in the country, if he is not who you are seeing then make an appointment to see him for a second opinion.

Brook said...

I see Dr Clohisy in St Louis. I love and respect him but I'm beyond ready to either do another hip scope or THR. He only wants me to keep therapy and see a main management. Therapy is making me worse. To the point I don't want to get out of bed. Which is completely opposite of my previous life. Yes we have worked on hamstring. No luck there. Turns out I did have nerve damage from surgery. My leg was numb for 2 years post op. after several rounds of steroids it has stopped leaving a burning sensation posterior knee. The intensity varies really.

Brook said...

Few questions:
Has anyone not had any relief from steroid injections in hip but has had relief from hip scope or THR? Since I have not had relief from shots dr says it doesn't look good for me to improve.
Has any heard of Dr. Smith in LaGrange IL (Chicago) thinking about getting second opinion. (I see dr Clohisy in STL)
Kudos Susie for keeping this site going for so many years! Thank you so much! I know I'm not the only one out there that feels this way but it sure can feel like it :)
Any dr suggestions?
Am I crazy for wanting THR at 34?

Anonymous said...

15 yo daughter.. had fai-labrum surgery on December 18th..just started aqua therapy this week..her biggest complaint before surgery was lots of groin pain, but now she is almost 1 month post op and states her groin hurts more now then before surgery..she is still non weight bearing... we don't see doc till end of January.. is this normal for her to still have so much pain after surgery? almost 4 weeks post op..thanks

Susie said...

Anonymous- my gut feeling says something is not right but you should definitely see the orthopedic surgeon to get things checked out. It's possible that she is experiencing psoas pain from compensation and possibly not using her crutches correctly

Anonymous said...

yeah, we are just very very concerned that this was not fixed. or that maybe it was not the labrum tear that was bothering her in the first place and something unrelated and was a wasted surgery... there was a small tiny tear though that was fixed... very odd

Anonymous said...

my daughter is now six weeks post op and still no relief from surgery.. her groin is still catching all the time and still lots of pain. she has been off crutches one week now and has just started her dry therapy(was in pool for 4 weeks)
saw the doctor last week and he is not concerned with the catching and the pain.. says its all normal. when she had the fai surgery on her other hip last spring she was relieved of all these systems right away.. this one is so much different..
this is so sad for her.. going into 11th grade next year.. was a promising young soccer player trying for a scholarship and has now missed the past season with these hips. If this surgery failed on her left hip another surgery will end her 11th grade season and end all hope for college.. she is so upset.. soccer was her life... Her doctor still is not worried and tells her to come back in 6 weeks and will be back playing spring soccer in april. He is a very well known doctor in the buffalo area..
Has anyone else experienced the continued catching six weeks Post-op? once again she had the FAI labrum repair..thanks

Anonymous said...

Here we are, now 9 weeks post op for my 15 yo daughter... still having tons and tons of catching and pain in her groin.. same as pre-op...catching has never stopped... Her therapist says its her psos muscle and that it has to calm down before it gets relief... I talked to her dr on phone last week and he says the same thing..says its very normal to still have a lot of catching if that psos is acting up... This never happened to her other hip after that surgery..this is all new... its been catching now for over six months... and surgery never relived it..
We go back to doctor in two weeks and he says he will give her a shot in her hip..
does any of this sound normal???

Susie said...

An injection can be the first step to diagnosing what is truly wrong. If the psoas injection helps then you know it is the psoas

Anonymous said...

sussie, thank you.. we are hoping that the shot relieves it...Of course if the shot does stop the catching, then the thaught starts creeping into the mind that it was this tendon all along and maybe the fai surgery was kind of wasted??? the reason she had surgery was for all the catching in her groin... either way, im hoping that if the catching stops with an injection that is all that is needed.. I hope this does not mean another surgery for her... she only has one year left to play her highschool soccer and she really wants to play her senior year...to think, two years ago she was all state and working on scholarship.... that dream is fading...

hacksaw said...

It's awful to read all of this, but I'm hoping someone here can help me. You are all writing about possible failed surgeries. What do you do when you can't get anyone to do surgery?!
I've been home-bound for 2 and 1/2 years with bilateral hip/butt/thigh burning/stabbing pain since car accident in which I had a sub-trohanteric femur fracture. Been to hip orthos and pain docs and numerous therapies to no avail. Original surgeon refused to help me. Feel suicidal b/c I have no life. Docs don't listen to you or examine you, they only care about test results and pushing pills. So if they can't see what you're describing, it doesn't exist, so they won't do surgery. Couldn't have contrast or other dye for MRIs, so it's possible that some things were missed. Finally was told one hip has torn labrum, and the other has "bursitis". Doc said it's not worth doing surgery for. But the pain is equal on both sides, plus snapping/ catching on the left (surgery side). It's been all this time, I'm in agony, can't eat from pain and 97 lbs, and barely "walking" on quad cane. I'm in south Florida and don't know what to do now. Other patients have mild pain and minimal showings on MRIs and their docs do surgery. With the passage of time and no remedy, my entire body is on chronic stabbing fire.
Another problem: some docs refuse to see me. One won't see me b/c I was in a car accident. One won't see me b/c I'm 50 (female), and he only sees patients 49 and under. Yet his website has a testimonial from a 52 year old and shows photos of patients in their senior years. One doc won't see me b/c it's not a sports injury, but his website says he sees everyone. Who do you go to see in south Florida who will listen and examine you properly? Sorry this post is so convoluted; I am desperate b/c of this relentless pain and don't want to be here much longer if I can't get proper help. I am not living; I am merely existing at this point. I would like to know: where are all the Florida people going for their care? Am I the only one who's experiencing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Susie said...

Hacksaw- I am so sorry you are going through this. I unfortunately have no great recommendations in south Florida. My brother lives there and ended hip surgery and I made him come to nyc. One of m really good friends is also in Florida and has had all of her hip surgeries in ny as well. If you want specific recommendations feel free to email me.

hacksaw said...

Thank you for your reply, Susie. Thank you for your compassion.
Can you please explain a little more about your brother "ending hip surgery" in south Florida?
In NY, are you referring to the famous hip arthroscopist at HSS?

Susie said...

He needed hip surgery... Was a typo. Yes. That is who did his surgery.

hacksaw said...

Susie, how did your brother do after his surgery? Was it successful?

Anonymous said...

Susie, have you heard of the PSOS tendon causing tons of catching issues before? her PT and Doc seems to think its normal and will go away once her core muscles are built up..... if I google I come up with horror stories and people saying not normal.. I should stop googling....

Susie said...

Hacksaw- yes. It was successful. He is a triathlete and continues to compete

Susie said...

Anonymous- you seem to have a lot of doubts about the success of your daughters surgery. Why not get a second opinion instead of continuing to wonder if her surgeon fixed the problem. Better to address it now than continue to wait

Unknown said...

I am 11 days post op from my hip arthroscopy. I had cam and pincer impingement, labral repair with stitches, some kind of tendon was involved but I'm not sure what. I did great for the first 5 days! I was so excited after 3 years of pain to not be hurting. However, my pain has begun to increase since. I've been doing pt twice a week and several times a day at home, icing after each time. A couple days ago I absentmindedly squatted down to pick up the phone I dropped. Big no no as my post surgery protocol says no external rotation or bending past 90 degrees. I'm nervous as to whether I did any damage but the nurses don't seem to think so. The increased pain is scaring me, a lot. Looking for some positive feedback. My surgery was done by an amazing surgeon, Thomas Byrd in Nashville.

Susie said...

I wouldn't be too concerned about increased pain at 11 days. The recovery is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs

Unknown said...

I have had one hip surgery to repair a torn right labrum. I am now experiencing pain worse than before and it is 7 months out. I have now been told I have FAI caused by both my femur and the cup of my hip. I have had a few doctors tell me that repairing the labrum again will fail and that I have to have new cartilage grafted in, as well as getting my bones reshaped. Has anyone else experienced something like this? If so did they graft in new cartilage or just repair the labrum again? Was it successful?

Susie said...

If you have FAI it needs to be addressed before doing anything to the labrum, whether repairing it or augmenting it. That decision is not as important as addressing the underlying cause to Labral damage which is the Fai.

Anonymous said...

Follow up to my 15 yo daughter..who has constant pain and catching still... 3 months post op..same symptoms as pre surgery....saw doc yesterday. he says it looks like adhesive capsulitis??? says that she is extremely tight...she needs to stretch stretch and then stretch some more....is giving her six more weeks..if no improvement then he says he can scope it again to clean it up.. but is hopeful with more PT and more stretching that this will fix it.. I hope so.. I have never heard of this condition... but he is thinking this is what she is suffering from.

Janice said...

Hi there. I'm 33 years old and I can barely walk. I had an arthroscopic hip repair July 2011 for a large tear in the cartilage on the head of the femur. The doctor shaved down the entire head because he also felt I had a shallow hip joint and that was part of my problem. He punctured holes in the head of the femur in hopes that my body would create a callus to absorb some of the shock since cartilage does not regenerate well, if at all. Recovery went well, considering. I was up and moving again, mostly like normal, about 6 months later. About a year ago I started having intense pain in my hip again. I went back to the doctor almost a year ago and he told me there was really nothing I could do, short of a replacement. He said I could try to manage the pain with NSAIDs, cortisone shots and gel injections (that are not approved by the FDA or insurance for the hip joint), but that there was no guarantee that those would even work. I've had no luck with the steroids or the NSAIDs. The gel injections are expensive, like $1300 for a round of 3 shots and that's just for the prescription. I'd still have to pay for the actual procedure on top of that. At this point I'm limping so bad now that my lower back is being pulled in an uncomfortable position. My hip pops loudly as I walk. My mother can't stand to watch me move around because of how much pain I look like I'm in. My friends and coworkers are constantly commenting on my limp and how they feel sorry for me, which drives me crazy. I feel like I'm way to young to even consider a full replacement. I'm not sure if the doctor classifies this as a successful situation, but I can assure that I do not consider this successful by any means. Judging by the last set of xrays, I think that when he shaved the femur down, it wasn't rounded out. It doesn't move at all like it should.

Susie said...

At 33 I would try to find a hip preservation doctor who can help you and potentially fix anything not caught uh the first doctor

Shelby said...

18 year old female with mixed FAI, two grade 2 labrum tears, torn adductors, frayed/torn hip-flexor, and psoas release (all happened from playing soccer)was "fixed" in a hip scope I had in November of 2013. Pain is the same if not worse than before surgery but I am twenty times tighter than before surgery. Currently loud painful pops occur with every step and I cannot sit/stand/walk more than 5 minuets at a time. Narcotics are needed nightly to sleep :( My doctor kind of ignored the fact that everything still hurts after 5 months. He ended my physical therapy in early January saying I had done too much too soon, but I followed protocol so closely there is no way that is the case. Since, the doc has rule the pain as bursitis.. Which I KNOW it's not!! This hip stuff is so painful and debilitating... I hope I see some success stories on here soon, but enjoy hearing other people's similar stories... It is very helpful to see I'm not alone and other people have problems too!

Anonymous said...

Hi Shelby, My 15 yo daughter going thru same thing..had right hip surgery to repair fai last march... 6 months recovery, came back and played fall soccer and tore labrum in left hip... had fai surgery in December... 4 months out and her catching and hip pain is still the same as pre-surgery... very very very tight... but the catching is what is concerning... PT thinks is the psoias tendon... she has a MRI setup for this week to check the labrum again... doc doesn't think its the labrum though..says this is normal...even though her right leg went smooth last year...
she will be 16 this august and entering her junior season...she still hopeful to return to soccer, but after 4 months of rehab this is all up in the air.... it stinks to see you young girls go thru this.....

Anonymous said...

Hi Shelby, My 15 yo daughter going thru same thing..had right hip surgery to repair fai last march... 6 months recovery, came back and played fall soccer and tore labrum in left hip... had fai surgery in December... 4 months out and her catching and hip pain is still the same as pre-surgery... very very very tight... but the catching is what is concerning... PT thinks is the psoias tendon... she has a MRI setup for this week to check the labrum again... doc doesn't think its the labrum though..says this is normal...even though her right leg went smooth last year...
she will be 16 this august and entering her junior season...she still hopeful to return to soccer, but after 4 months of rehab this is all up in the air.... it stinks to see you young girls go thru this.....

Shelby said...

It sounds like your daughter and i are having the same issues. I would love to hear her story if you want to email me at sncsoccer15@gmail.com. Did she have a psoas release during her previous surgery? Has your doctor brought up a second surgery? I'm so done with the "try this and wait 8 weeks" injections and therapy. I really hope she makes it back for soccer... I didn't :(

Anonymous said...

My daughter had her MRI yesterday.. results came back..talked to doctor last night and he informed that the MRI showed nothing... surgery site looks good.. no retear of the labrum. it did show a tight Psois tendon... he said to keep stretching that tendon.. but does want her to start running at PT... her therapist says that sometimes if they get running it might help loosing that muscle up also as it triggers even more muscles to work.... This is a great mystery.. Not so much the pain but the catching in the groin.. this is 8 months now of constant catching.... two mris and a fai surgery and still catching... confused....

Unknown said...

Hello "anonymous mom"! I am now 32 years old; about a decade post-multiple-surgeries (open, scope, PT, u name it). Hip issues reared their ugly head as a teen, found "accurate" (tho I use the term relatively loosely) during college years (til my AMAZING dr moved across the country), graduated college, got married, lost health insurance, been coping via "pain management" options ever since. That's the abridged version anyway! I'm reaching out because u remind me of my own mother, & all the things SHE went thru (via my issues), thru the years. I am not so tech-savvy, & found this page while piddling with my new (1st ever) smartphone...which I don't intend to use for much more than phone calls/texting... I'm worried I may not find this page again on my computer. SO... in case this is the 1st & last time I have the opportunity to reach out to u, my email is: tonijeckstein@gmail.com. I wish my mother (& I) could've had someone to talk to that could provide a fast-forward snapshot of my 20's & on. Every kid is different; every medical issue, procedure, life situation, dr, treatment plan, etc is different for each individual person's experience (not to mention how medical technology & treatment options advance over time), BUT... there are some things that I wish we would've known/planned for, that remain the same regardless of individuality or time. They say hindsight is 20-20... I believe I can provide that for you & your daughter. Someday she'll be 32 as well, & hopefully with a little foresight into her next several years, you can both have more options & make better decisions to see her into a happy healthy adult life. I wish I had a time machine to take me (& my family) back to some crucial years... I wish I could re-do ages 15-28... I wouldn't do a total overhaul (I have very few regrets), but I'd certainly tweak some things so my life wouldn't have been such an ongoing struggle. I don't say that to scare u; all things considered, I'm doing, eh, "OK"... My life is 'decent'; I'm grateful for the positives, but so many of the negatives could've been avoided. Unfortunately we don't get do-overs; life doesn't work like that. All we can do is push forward & help others learn from our experience. I just think I can provide u (& your daughter) with some things to think about, so u won't have to utter the phrase used all too often by my mother, "Wish we'd've known" (or my standard, "Damn, why did/didn't I just ___!?!?") Hopefully you'll see me on this site again (if I can find it), but if not, please shoot me an email so we can talk further (& maybe u can teach me how to find this site again!)

Unknown said...

Hey,
I played soccer for almost 19 years and I will be 22 yrs old in May. I tore my shoulder labrum my senior year in high school and got it repaired by scope, then retore it my sophomore of college and got it repaired (I still have massive problems with that shoulder). Well November 13,2013 I was playing in an indoor soccer game and completely shredded my ACL and later found out I tore my hip labrum completely. I had ACL surgery Jan 2nd and had to do a manipulation on it. On March 18th I had scope surgery on my hip and I started walking on it two days after surgery. I went to my surgeon and he beat me with papers because I wasn't on crutches, so now I wake up in the middle of the night screaming in pain because my hip feels like someone stabbed me. My surgeon believes I retore it!!! My husband is active duty military and we are supposed be moving next Friday for him to go to training for 5 months we'll now I have to go back home to get surgery again!!!! I am way to young to be having so much surgery and pain

Unknown said...

Hi All,

So here's my story; I'll try to keep it short. When I was 18 I pulled my hip flexor and sometime after that tore my cartilage through sports. The first MRI I had showed nothing, just inflammation.

After 3 years of pain, I had a second MRI which showed the FAI and labral tear. I had a hip scope done almost two years ago by a well-respected surgeon in Chicago. Physical therapy for three months post-op and I still had a pinching pain on passive motion in the anterior portion of my hip. Almost two years later I still get really bad hip pain on the side and anterior portion, mostly after sitting for any extended period of time.

I'm debating going back to my surgeon for a third MRI - not sure if it was a failed surgery or not. I would love not to have another but at 22 I would rather do it now rather than later if I had to. Four years of chronic pain at my age is too much; I miss being able to play sports without pain!

Unknown said...

Joint Pain is so gruesome i had a surgery for it but the surgery become the worst decision of my life, I went from having pain to artificial left leg.

Anonymous said...

seems like my daughter cant win... after two separate fai surgerys on each hip.. she finally starts feeling better... for those following, she is the 15 yo soccer player who keeps getting catching issues... the catching finally stopped... doc says it was scar tissue... its finally improving, she returned to her soccer team and now her knee is really bothering her...she gets off two hip surgerys, hip feeling good and now her knee hurts... its around where the meniscus is... Orthopedic wants to wait for now before he looks at that as he thinks it is related to hip and will get better.. but now she and I are real worried about this.. she doesn't need a torn meniscus.. she only has one year left in school soccer and rehabbed so hard to get back and now this... if she gets her meniscus repaired that will be another 6-10 month recovery.... of course im guessing meniscus because I had three tears there...

Anonymous said...

Hello everyone,

It's really sad to hear all these stories. I start to think that this surgery is not as succesful as it's presented. Too much unknown stuff as it is a new procedure.

Amyway. I'm 28 years old female, almost 2 years post operation - Left hip arthroscopy which included removal of Cam and Pincer impingement and a labral tear refixation (I think it was done with 2 anchors, maybe 3).

Prior to the operation I suffered for a long period of time (a few years). I had a problem to lift my leg (walking up the stairs was a nightmare), constant groin pain while seating, lower back pain, etc. The Doctor said my problem was a result of abnormal hip design (which was ignored by doctors when I was a baby) and too much sport throughout my life.

The post op rehabilitation was hard, even though my PT said I was doing better than most post op patients. A year ago I started to suffer again from similar symptoms to the pre-op, and painful popping of the hip (which is new).
I went back to my Doctor, he thinks it's a scar tissue problem and asked to do an MRI in order to have a better indication of the problem. He also said that if it's a scar tissue, an operation could solve the problem.

I'm really frustrated, I can't stand the pain anymore and I don't want to go through another surgery.

Andreas said...

Hello!
Im 32 year personal trainer. I had my first FAI scope -10,11 for cam. To little was done and now I did another scope in both hips, with another Dr for cam and pincer. My labrum was so bad so He couldn't save it. Now its 9 week post op. My big problem is this:
I can't flex my hip more then about 95 degrees. I can't even do leg press because its like no range of motion for that. Its no better then pre op. What can be wrong? I will meet Dr again in the end om Aug.

Im very disappointed because I need the ROM for my work as a trainer.

Anonymous said...

my 15 YO daughter is at it again. returned to soccer last month..was 100% pain free..no catching..groin was like brand new.... played a month... then had a collision with the goalie and twisted her hip funny...ever since then all her symptoms returned.. catching and pain in groin. Saw her doc two weeks ago... did some motion test in his office and said she did not retear her labrum... I have no idea how he knows without doing an MRI but he said very doubtful that she retore it.. 3 weeks after her collision she is still in pain..he put her back into rehab for another 4 weeks... I hope this surgery was not wasted..she was doing so good and returned to her sport painfree and now this....

Unknown said...

I am a 23 year old female dancer looking for some advice on whether or not to have a hip scope. I've been experiencing groin pain/catching on and off for 5-6 years now, since my last year of high school when I was dancing very intensely. Since I'm no longer dancing as much, the pain has decreased somewhat but is definitely still present. Over the last 5 years or so I've been to about 6 doctors, as well as a few physiotherapists. I had several x-rays, which were mostly normal (one showed very slight acetabular retroversion), one MRI and one MRA. Both were normal on initial reading, however I was finally referred to a surgeon who looked over the MRA himself and saw some evidence of a small labral tear, although he can't be sure without going in to scope it. In addition, I have had a cortisone injection into the joint, which did reduce the pain for several months. In addition to finding a probable labral tear, the surgeon I saw last week also noted that my psoas snapping is fairly severe, and wants to release that with a scope, in addition to fixing the labral tear.

At this point, I'm not sure whether or not to go through with the surgery! I've read some success stories, but also so many things about failed surgeries or continued/worsened pain. Currently, my pain is not terrible, I can walk fairly long distances and complete all daily activities but I can no longer dance, and other activities such as running and squatting also pose a problem. While I'm not asking to be able to dance competitively again (i think those years are over) I would really love to be able to do some recreational dance and sports without being in pain.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would you advise against surgery and just deal with the pain for now? I'm willing to put up with the surgery and the rehab, but only if its something that will pay off in the long run. Any advice? Any thoughts/experiences at all would be greatly appreciated!!

missy said...

I am 7 weeks post hip arthroscopy with repair of FAI and capsular repair and a tightening of the joint as I have hip dysplasia that was never diagnosed until 34 when this all started. At two weeks the pain began to increase, I started having visible inflammation over my anterior and posterior thigh. I am also having a stabbing pain in the iliac crest and my actual femur bone. Still having shooting pains into my groin. The pain just keeps getting worse. At two weeks the PA said increase the pain meds. At six weeks the surgeon said I should have been able to wean off the meds after week 1. I am so confused and frustrated. Now at 7 weeks post op I am on a second round of steroids for the inflammation, they did a MRI of my back which was clear, but for some reason they will not MRI my hip. They are saying they will not give me any more pain meds (narcotics) but want to send me to a pain clinic for management...I am allergic to ibuprofen and that family of NSAIDs. I did take the Naproxyn post op. They have backed off my PT. The pain just keeps getting worse. I have no idea what to do at this point...I am angry at my surgeon for trying to send me to a pain clinic at only 7 weeks post op and not address where the pain is actually coming from.

I am still using one crutch for walking and am at least doing aquatic therapy. Should I push for a MRI, go to another surgeon? I feel like this is post surgical neglect on the surgeon's part. I am a nursing instructor and am just taken back by the lack of caring and compassion from a surgeon who is "on paper" great. Any thoughts??? Just so frustrated at this point!

Susie said...

Missy- I think you have to listen to your gut about your surgeon.I agree that 7 weeks is too early for a new MRI but if you have dysplasia you may want an opinion on how that has to be managed. Scopes in patients with severe dysplasia can fail, but surgeons usually won't operate if it is that severe. Have you had a CT scan to measure the dysplasia?

missy said...

I haven't had a CT for the measurement of dysplasia, it obviously couldn't have been too bad or I would have thought it would have been diagnosed before now. I do remember as a child and even younger adult my hip subluxating and having to have it popped back into place but it was never painful.

This deep ache in my leg was how the pain all started before the surgery do you think it could be from the hip or something in my femur...after therapy today my hip joint was so red and hot to the touch it is definitely having some major inflammation that the steroids aren't even stopping. Just worried maybe we are missing something that is there and maybe the pain wasn't from the FAI or has it reimpinged? I talked to a friend of mine today who is an ortho surgeon who does labral repairs on shoulders not knees and he is saying maybe another MRA isn't a bad idea but you think it is? At this point I am willing to go for a complete amputation :/

missy said...

I meant hips not knees...

Anonymous said...

I am a 33 year old male, I now live in Florida, but I previously lived in the northern Midwest. I I have had two labral repairs now and I right back to square one. The first surgery repaired just a portion of the labrum. Within a year, it was as though I never had the survey and in fact it was worse pain than before. The second surgery was a complete labral repair and some reduction to the top of my femur. It's been two years now since the last surgery and again I am in extreme pain. I've always told doctors, the more active I am and the more I am on my feet, the more it hurts. And it hurts in the groin, outside of my hip, towards my rear, and in the joint as well. I'm at a loss and really not sure what to do. The one benefit I do have is that this is a service connected injury, but that involves working with VA doctors and this process can be slow. I have recently lost my job of 5 years due to this and am now unemployed hoping I can find work I can actually perform. Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated, thank you!

Susie said...

After years of dealing with hips, hearig other people's hip stories and meeting many other "hippies", I can tell yoh the reason surgery fails is often because of residual or unaddressed impingement. Have you been checked for impingement (or FAI)? If it is not addressed when the labrum is repaired then the underlying issue has been addressed. While this was a lot more common a few years ago, it can still happen. I hope you get answers soon!

Anonymous said...

The last surgery did in fact address FAI, which I believe was the reason for reducing the my femur towards the top. I believe that has simply just resulted in a reduction of my movement. For example, I can no longer sit with my left foot placed on my right knee, it simply just does not move that far anymore. My main worry, more than even dreading the next level of treatment now after failed arthroscopies, is what I am actually capable of doing for work and being able to support my family on such an income. It just seems that I am so limited in whatever it is I do now.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I had a hip arthroscopy on my right hip to address FAI on 17/1/2014. Everything went fine and I was very active until last September when my other leg started having similar problems. I had an arthroscopy on my left hip as well on 17/12/2014. I am still on cruches but my right one started giving me weird pains and groans for the last five days or so. The doctor suggested I should not worry because I now overload it due to my condition and that it should be ok soon as I start walking with both feet again. Has anyone experienced something similar or should I start worrying?

Anonymous said...

Had hip arthroscopy for labral tear (funny spelled just like "tears" from crying, which is all that resulted from the failed surgery). Injury was from forced trauma on the job..Yes, the doctor also shaved the bone from my FAI, so that was addressed too. Since the surgery I never got better. 1 year later, new MRI shows "new or continued tear", missing cartiledge, cysts, fluid pockets, no arthritis, and same area with cartiledge lifting off the bone..No words left except total hip replacement, and B.S.

Unknown said...

I highly recommend no one have a femoroplasty and labrum repair have gone through 2 on right hip and now worse than before. If I could go back pre initial surgery would in a heart beat. Severe deep butt pain , stabbing pain, thigh numb, weak. Do not do it!!!!!!!!!

Blondie said...

Hi all! I'm 4weeks out of surgery.I had a shredded labrum,impingement, bone spurs and mild arthritis. My surgeon made it clear I was borderline whether arthroscopic surgery would work or not. I got more than one opinion and went for it. I am a hiking guide and cyclist -mountain biking 24_hour races. I'm 60 ,very fit and couldn't quite face the changes in my life with a THR. Long story short the surgery was a nightmare, had to stay in the hospital because they couldn't control my pain. After a couple of weeks the pain got better and I could place some weight on it. My doctor had me on Indomethacin and as soon as he stopped it after 3weeks I was in so much pain I couldn't put any weight on it. Total agony. Xrays came back OK with no fractures but showed that on one side was very close to bone on bone and then he put me on more Indomethacin and to try to help the inflammation I had it injected a couple of days ago. Ouch!! I am starting to feel this is not going t get better. The injection helped a little and I know it will take a full week but my hip feels broken. Much worse than before surgery. My question is this- how long do I give this before I realize its not going to work??? I realize that this is at least a 3 month process before I can even think about resuming my normal life. But I have been flat on my back in bed for a month with no end in sight and hobbling around on crutches. I am not a sedentary person and I'm going nuts -HELP!!!!! THANKS!!

Unknown said...

Hi,all.
I got right hip arthroscopic 4 days ago. Overall my pain wasn't bad for the first 3 days. In this afternoon I tried to move up in bed by bending and putting up my knees. When I pushed myself up, absentminedly I used my non-weight bearing hip. I felt worse pain right away and my pain level increased from 2 to 9. I have been having pre-op pain for 2 years, and finally I got it done this time. I feel very frustrated now. What if I ruin my surgery? Anyone has a similar case like mine? Thanks!!

Unknown said...

Wish I knew your outcome. My wife is exactly what you described.

Blondie said...

I'm not sure whose outcome you're asking about but I'll give an update on mine. 8 weeks after arthroscopic surgery I was still in agony. X-rays revelealed that I was bone on bone in the joint. Epic fail. I had no choice but to do a total hip replacement. So 10 weeks after the first surgery I underwent THR. Another awful post surgery - incredibly painful. In the hospital 3 days, home therapy and now 4 weeks out I go out to PT. I can't drive yet because I still have to take pain meds and it's my right leg. I am walking about 3 to 4 miles a day which is great. No fooling this is a tough surgery. Pain control is my biggest issue and I'm not a wimp! Mobility is getting better and I'm hoping the pain will subside soon otherwise I would go nuts. This has been right up there with the worst experience of my life and it's far from over! If you have more questions please ask away! I can't work so I have plenty of time to answer questions.

Unknown said...

Excellent blog, lots of useful info. happens all the time.
Workers Compensation
Botox Injections
Discography
Epidural Injections
Epidural Lysis Procedure
Facet Blocks
Intercostal Nerve Blocks
Intrathecal Pump Therapy
Intradiscal Electrothermal Therapy
Joint Injections
Percutaneous Discectomy
P-STIM
Racz Epidural Neurolysis
Spinal Cord Stimulation
Vertebroplasty
Platelet Rich Plasma
Pain Treatments

Knee Replacement Surgery said...

Hey, Thank you so much for share this awesome article with everyone.
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy
Elbow Surgery
Hip Replacement Surgery
Shoulder Surgery
Stem Cell Therapy

Work Comp Injury said...

This site is excellent and so is how the subject matter was explained. I also like some of the comments too. Waiting for the next post.

Primus Super Speciality Hospital said...

Thanks for sharing this great post! That is very interesting information

Stephanie said...

I've had hip pain since I had my 2nd son when I was 24 (I am now 37). I had my first hip arthroscopy when I was 25, then another one in the same year because my pain was still present. After my second "scope" for labral tear and debridement my pain started to get better! I would have hip pain occasionally, sometimes bouts of pain and inflammation that would last a week or so. As I've gotten older and had my 3rd son at the age of 32 my pain was getting much worse. I was referred to an ortho Dr. who looked at a CT that I had done for kidney stones and said that I had hip impingement. He referred me to a surgeon that specializes in fixing this. I had my THIRD hip arthroscopy in November 2014. The pain was awful afterwards, but within 4-5 weeks I was walking without crutches and managing my pain, even though it was still present. I am now 7 months post-op and am having severe pain (the worst hip pain I've ever had) in my hip. It aches from my hip to my knee when I sit, I get sharp pains when I walk. I am scheduled for an MRI and an intra-articular injection following. I'm hoping for answers...and fast. Being in this much pain is awful. Thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions please feel free to share! :)

Unknown said...

I'm 27 years old and federated futsal player .
I operated a small tear of the labrum in the hip on a year ago. The doctor chose to close the rupture without anchors .
After 6 months was found that the breakage of the labrum had increased.
I operated the nine weeks ago with placement of 3 anchors .
Right now I am in great pain in the hip area . I can not get physiotherapy and walking hurts me a lot.

What can be happening? what should I do?

I have consulted with my doctor on next Thursday.

Susie said...

Hi Ricardo, do you know why the labrum tore? You want to make sure the cause is identified and addressed. Good luck to you.

Unknown said...

Hello Susie ,

According to the medical team , the rupture happened in the game because of a strike , and there is no problem in bone that caused the rupture .

In the first arthroscopy , had ruptured in chondrolabral transition in zone II and sealing was performed by radio frequency and femuroplastia .
After 2 months as still in pain , Dr. yield a collagen injection without any effect.

In the second arthroscopy , had rupture in zone III and degenerated labrum, was performed capsulotomy L, labral detachment and "rim treaming " with acetabular fluorscópic control , re- insertion of the labrum with 3 anchors and capsulorrhaphy with 2 points.

Right now I'm worse than I've ever been . Walking causes a lot of pain in the same place . (Right Hip Groin Pain)
The left knee is in great distress due to overload.

The doctor did the operation is the best in Portugal .

Any idea? what should I do?

Anonymous said...

Alright, I've had 2 hip arthroscopes done, I've been off work now for 8 weeks, and pt 2 times a week since 2nd surgery, activity makes everything worse, its been a long road I've been down with this hip. In constant pain, never stops, cannot sleep on my right side at all, supposed to go back to work, how can I when I stand at my job and I hurt so bad still. Doc says to wait the full 12 weeks that was at my 4 week check up, well things are not progressing for the better, I am losing hope I am at 8 weeks right now. Just walking around the house has me bed ridden the next day. I can't work like this, what to do?

JiminMontana said...

Good day everyone. I'm in my late 50s and after four years of staggering around with a painful right hip I sought ortho help in March this year. I am very active with mountain climbing, skiing, hunting, etc. Around 2006 I had a painful crash trying to learn to snowboard, which led to a torn labrum. The symptoms didn't show up until 2010 after an attempt on Rainier.
Four years later the symptoms got unbearable and on April 21st I had FAI surgery with labral reattachment. The same day surgery (amazing) included suturing a torn chunk of the labrum, removing some damaged acetabular cartilage, micro-fracturing the acetabulum, and debriding some arthritic bone on the femur.
Now 8 months later while the pre-surgery movements don't cause pain, today I am walking with a cain because of the pain. What is very strange, I can sit, stand, and lie down with no pain but walking just hurts. I am trying to figure out my next steps because after a second round of PT they found my repaired hip was equal in strength to the other, however, movement/rotation was quite restricted - very tight. Doing some flexural stretches but not getting any relief. My surgeon said my next step now is full hip replacement. The surgery was supposed to last 5 to 10 years before full replacement. Any suggestions?

Unknown said...

I am 25 years old and had a hip arthroscopy, laberal tear repair and two IT band releases done in September 2015 and two months later had my hip dislocate and now am waiting to see what my doctor wants to do next, been doing physical therapy and nothing is helping. I'm in constant pain and don't know what is going to be the next step. I'm young so I doubt that I'll get a hip replacement done but what do you think? Both my therapist and doctor think that I retore my labrum since I am still having the same issues that I had before the surgery.

Unknown said...

Amanda Lineweaver do you have facebook?

Unknown said...

Yes

Unknown said...

facebook name please to talk with you about labrum tear/re-tore.

Blondie said...

I feel all of your pain. I did arthroscopic surgery which left me crippled. No one to blame but me. I took a chance. I had a torn labrum and arthritis. Long story short 10 weeks later I did a total hip replacement. It was the best thing I could have done. I am an extremely active person who mountain bikes and hikes and climbs. It was an excruciating recovery but 8 weeks later I was mountain biking and hiking. The key is being in great condition. My point is don't be afraid of replacement. I was scared to death of them cutting my bone off and the replacement but the recovery was faster than arthroscopic and if I could take it back I would never have done the arthroscopic. But I was scared.

Unknown said...

I'm both afraid and just want it done with I'm not sure though if I can even have a replacement with how young I am but I would gladly take one to get rid of this pain

Unknown said...

I have been searching and searching for other who have had multiple arthroscopies and finally found this!

Three years ago I tore my labrum, I had the surgery and went along my way. While working as a home health aide I had that same pain and snapping sound and knew immediately I re-tore it. I had my second surgery a year and a half ago and was living pretty well until recently. As I sit here now I feel the same pain, deep, sharp and achy and it scares the hell out of me. Has anyone ever had three?? What else can they do besides a hip replacement? I am 23 years old and in a full blown panic. I see the doctor Monday, I assume I will have my third MRI with contrast and we will go from there.


Is there anyone out there who has had three surgeries? Is it even worth it at this point. I know that with the two surgeries I have had parts of the femoral head taken off because of bone spurs, how much more bone can they take?

Honestly nobody would have to answer, just feels good to vent to others who know the pain and know how truly scary this is.

Unknown said...

I posted on here about a week or so again about my constant hip pain after a hip arthrogram and laberal tear repair. I'm still in physical therapy and it's still not doing any better it hurts to walk or sit and the only relief I somewhat get is when I'm laying down. Now I'm noticing that when I lay down I can pop it/ shift it almost like if it was double jointed. My therapist thinks that it's the femur shifting down bc of the muscles not being strong enough to support it. I know I still have a lot of therapy to but it's constantly hurting and I'm terrified of it dislocating again. I'm currently under my dads insurance but I'm going to lose it in September and I'm afraid of having to need a second surgery after it ends. I go back to my doctor in 2 months and may have another MRI then to see but I'm still worried about another surgery

Blondie said...

I can relate. You might not want to hear this but your should think about replacement. I was terrified but after a failed arthroscopic procedure I had no choice. I was afraid for nothing!!!!!! I was mountain biking 8 weeks later!! And I'm 61. It's nothing a bad thing. You should consider it.

Unknown said...

That's what I'm thinking I'm going to need done Im worried right now about having to need one after my dads insurance stops I asked my doctor if he thinks I'll need another surgery and he just said he's not sure at this point but that he's hoping not. Therapy is killing me things that I did in therapy before this started happening aren't nearly as easy as they used to be and it is really disheartening and discouraging. I'm only 25 and I feel like it won't get better

Unknown said...

I am about a month shy of 1 year post FAI cam/pincer and labral repair. I felt great starting POD 1!! My pain has been minimal or non existent. I was told it could take up to a year, if not longer to have a complete recovery. Which was scary but like I said my pain was minimal when I had it compared to how I felt before surgery. 2 weeks ago I slipped in the shower and the groin/butt pain, snapping and radiating leg pain have returned. The last week has been the worst...the sharp pains when I'm walking drop me to my knees. I was told when I had my scope that I already had arthritis in my hip and would eventually need a hip replacement. If given the choice would you have another scope or just go for the replacement??

deb said...

I had my surgery on 8/20, same , labral tear, 3 anchors, shave bone to increase blood flow, some floating objects removed. Felt great until I started to walk with crutches at about 6-8 weeks. Immediate pain, though not the agony of the "catching/popping/dislocating" I had before. Dr. put me on NSAids, which did help. He advised me it was still healing, but I knew. It just never healed--the bone that was shaved. At 5.5 months went back with ever increasing pain. Dr. did x-ray, bones were closing in on each other. Had MRI and hip is a mess. Tons of swelling in the bone, he thinks rapid osteoarthritis has set in. What a cluster. I am back on crutches and the anti inflammatories, to see if I can stave off further arthritis. I went from so active to almost nothing. I am not ready for this life, and I have 7 kids to care for. Screaming in frustration!!! I hear all of you. I could not have lived how i was either, so ....My PT told me he had a friend, about 7 years older than I, go through 2 THR in the time I was still recovering from my labral repair!! I would say, I wish I had just done the replacement from the start, as I just lost a whole year of my life to this surgery, and I am worse than ever.deb

Blondie said...

I understand. I wasted quite a bit of time. Just do the THR.

Unknown said...

Hi all, so happy to have found this blog which I have been following closely. Happy for my sake, not all of yours!

I'm a 30 yr old female from the UK and I've had a real struggled for the last 2.5 yrs with bilateral CAM impingement.
Underwent hip scope in left hip Aug 15 which involved rim resec, labral repair and osteochondroplasty. Almost as soon as I was on full weight bare (4 weeks post op) I knew something wasn't right. 3 days ago I had a steroid shot in the post op hip to help with my pain levels but I'm really struggling!
Still catching, popping with pre op pain levels. Illiospoas snaps loudly and glutes are agony. Surgeon unwilling to do anything more until I'm at least 1 year post op due to an unstable pelvis and vulnerable joint.
Still haven't even started with the right hip yet. Really just looking for some guidance on what to do next. Currently on non weight bearing Physio as anything else is too painful. This condition is awful!!

Blondie said...

Tanya I had the exact same problem from my arthroscopic surgery. I couldn't walk on it at all. I never got off the crutches. I also had it injected. Major pain killers. Nothing worked. After consulting another surgeon I had a total hip replacement. That was 12 weeks after the first surgery. Incredibly painful but so worth it!!!!! I'm so sorry they are making you wait. I was in so much pain and I couldn't function or work. I'm in the US.

Unknown said...

Hi Blondie, thank you so much for your response and I'm sorry to hear of your awful experience.
Pain really does some strange things to your head doesn't it?
I'm sat here 3 days post steroid (which I didn't want) in indescribable pain praying for it to kick in.
This whole situation took 2 years to get me to surgery point and the labral tear was 'extensive'.
Surgeon is now saying he believes it could be adhesions but won't even re scan to find out yet. Feeling frustrated!
Back at the beginning I would never have even considered a THR being only 30 but now I'm all for anything to give me back ROM and a pain free life.
I hope your recovery is going well?
If you don't mind me asking do you have any underlying medical conditions that may have hindered you first time around?
I have joint Hypermobilty syndrome and they say this is the sole reason for my 'slow ' recovery

Blondie said...

Fortunately I don't have any conditions. I had a labrum tear, spurs and a little arthritis. It was borderline that it would work and I knew it. I was terrified of a hip replacement because you see people lurching around lol. I had the THR at 61. I am extremely active. I'm a guide. I rock climb, hike, and mtn biking is my passion. I was sure I would never be able to to do it again. Let me tell you I was back on my bike and riding at 7 weeks post surgery. It was hard, no kidding, you have to learn how to walk again. But you would never know I had a replacement except when I have to squat down - that's a little hard. Other than a wicked scar my life is totally normal!!!! The key is to be in good shape before!!!!!! So don't get so compromised before. You never know what is going to happen in your life. A replacement only has a certain life span and even though you're young you should do it and if in the future you will have to do it again you'll deal with it. Live your life now!!!

Unknown said...

Wow Blondie it sounds like it was totally the right choice for you. So pleased it's offered you the much needed freedom to live your life the way you should be able to.
Here in the uk a THR really would be a last resort at 30. I never even considered the scope not working prior to surgery, I was just utterly desperate for anything to release me from the complete agony I was facing.
My surgeon is amazing. I'm under UCHL and he specialises in conditions of the young hip. I'd had a steroid shot pre surgery and with a 6 month waiting list once the shot had worn off (5 weeks) I was in so much distress and pain that my surgeon had my on the operating table within 11 days. To me it was the answer and the disappointment has been crushing.
Now 5 days into this steroid and I'm trying to remember how long it took last time to do its thing 😁
How is your other hip? Certainly being fit and strong when you go in will offer you the best outcome after. So happy for you that it's been positive after all you've experienced:)

Anonymous said...

Male Age 43.
2.5 cms labral tear on the right hip. Cartilage is fine. Have pain when I play badminton if I put pressure on my right leg, and the same when opening a heavy door and having to put pressure. Feels as if the hip may break away. Also, if I rotate my hip in a particular angle, feel the pain in the groin. I have been recommended surgery (labrum being stiched back and the bone shaved off) , but seeing all these failures reported am worried whether I am going to make matters worse.

Blondie said...

I don't blame you. All I can say is if you have any arthritis arthroscopic surgery won't help.

Anonymous said...

No Arthritis and cartilage is clean. I just get that knife driving In pain in the groin in certain positons and s mentioned above cannot put pressure on leg and open a door or something. it feels like hip will give away. No such problems on left.

Kristen said...

I have finally found a place where it seems so many people may be able to understand what I am facing! I have had FAI/labral tear surgery twice in the past year on the same hip. First one was Impingement with labral tear, second was a revision. I have not made it past 4 months post either surgery without having the sharp pain return in my hip as soon as any sort of impact activity begins to be introduced at PT. I had a cortisone shot 4 weeks ago that I though might be helping, but now I am back in the same old pain again : ( Has anyone had a 3rd surgery on the same hip? Seems insane to keep considering something that clearly is not working but I don't know where else to turn! I see my Dr. on Tuesday and anticipate being sent for an MRI.I feel like I will never be pain free again : ( But trying to hold onto hope! Any advice or experience out there? I am only 32 and have a super sweet little boy who needs his fun Mommy back!

Blayne said...

Hello All. 34 year old male, I have been dealing with constant hip pain for almost three years. I got on the floor, cross legged, in my office to work on a computer problem in Aug. 2013. When I stood back up, my right hip started hurting, thus the beginning of my journey. My diagnosis didn’t take very long. Just by looking at my x-rays, my orthopedic specialist could tell that I had hip impingement. A MRI couldn’t confirm that I had labral tears. In November 2013, I could no longer handle the pain, after a series of more x-rays, I went in for surgery. Indeed, I had a major labral tear. My doc also confirmed that I had impingement in my left hip as well. During my recovery, (9 weeks on crutches, and 12 weeks of PT), I tore my left side. The right hip surgery was successful. Due to a dispute with my ins company, I couldn’t have my left hip repaired until Nov 2014, almost a year to the day of my right surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery was a failure and to this day I have to use a cane to walk. Six months ago, I just gave up after the doc told me there was nothing more they could do. After 2 years, I was so tired of these hip issues I just took a break from dealing with it. During that time, I have either re-torn my right side, or there is another problem because the pain has returned. I haven’t been a “normal” person for a long time. I am able to do some things. My doctor told me before that my running days were over. I have to really consider everything that I do, such as, grocery shopping, cleaning house, or riding in a car for a long period of time. I can do these things, but I might barely be able to move for days or a week afterwards. Stairs, are not an option for me anymore. I am 34 years old! Shouldn’t I be able to do most anything that I want? I try to remain positive about this. I am grateful that I can still work and, even though it can be painful, do mostly what I want to. I am thankful that I have a great support system of family and friends that understand. I am very determined to get my life back. I am going to start going back to the doctor again and see where I go from there. Maybe I could run again?

Blondie said...

I keep saying this over and over. Consider a hip replacement if this isn't getting better. Believe it or not you recover faster and you can do most everything you could before. I had arthroscopic surgery 13 months ago. Terrible failure that left me worse off. Long story short after 2 months of agony and crutches of said do the replacement. Best decision I ever made and I was terrified it would cripple me. Next month it will be one year and I mountain bike and rock climb and hike. The only thing you can't do is run.

Anonymous said...

It too almost 3 year to determine a a hip libaral tear after being misdiagnosed several times. I had surgery April 15, 2015. It was discovered I had bone spurs and they were shaved them down and a anchor had to be install. It was a day surgeon, so I came home same day. The next day I had heavy bleeding but my doctor said it was normal. The pain was great even after the stitches were removed. I could barely come down stairs I. My house without help and my crutches. I went to my post op appointment , they put me back on crutches for 5 more days. A week later after finishing with crutches, I did PT but it killed me. I had to go have a ultra sound after I kept complain about pain and went to the ER. They checked for blood clots which there was no blood clots. After almost a year, I am still having pain and feel hopeless like this will just be my life.

Mary said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mary said...

Blondie - Can you shoot me an email? We have sort of a similar story and interests and I am considering THR. I've had 4 surgeries on my hip since 2007 and want to be done with surgery. One surgeon I saw doesn't want to do THR as my joint space looks relative ok but he hasn't been in my hip to see the arthritis (last hip scope 7 months ago - arthritis on my acetabulum and my Labral tissue was crummy but surgeon attempted repair anyway). I'm seeing another THR surgeon this week for another opinion. I feel like I'd practically beg someone to do the THR if it means no more pain (or at least a lot less) and will restore me to function. Like you, I am an avid mt. biker and I used to race in New England. I don't expect to ever race like I used to (now I'm 52) but I would sure like to just be able to ride, walk, do yoga, and work. I was a competitive runner, too, but have given that up. If you dont' mind emailing me directly, you can reach me at bikergirl1x1@yahoo.com. Thank you. I'm really glad the THR has been the perfect solution for you!

I feel badly for all the other people out there still suffering. I can only say what my experience has done to me and it's frustrating and has made me feel hopeless and very depressed at times. Like, when will all of this be over? When will I be out of daily pain? My best advise to anyone out there is to not give up on advocating for yourself. Get more opinions if you aren't getting help or answers. Before my last surgery, the surgeon I had been to before didn't think I had another Labral tear (despite the MRI reading saying I did) so I got another opinion. Thank God I went to someone who was willing to help me and still is helping through all of this. He is an amazing Doctor in Boston. And this is most important - the hip is a very complex joint. You have to go to someone who specializes in the hip, ideally a surgeon who's done a fellowship in hip arthroscopy. All the best to everyone out there in navigating through their challenges.

Unknown said...

I have veen experiencing hip pain for about 2-2.5 years. I was finally diagnosed with a labral teyear to my right hip 12/14. I went through months if PT with no one willing to address my pain.issues and finally when I demanded a referral for pain management in 5/15, I was told they would perform surgery the end of 6/15. I believe the surgery went well. I was tild it was the worst teyear my surgeon has ever seen, as it was shredded and the joint required debridement due to all the damaged and inflamed tissue. I was pushed into PT earlier than the surgeon recommended, but because I felt suvh huge pain relief after surgery, I was ready to get moving. By my third week of PT I believe I re-injured the labrum and now, 8 months later I am in fairly constant pain again. Do I try the surgery again? Being in pain this long negatively impacted almost every aspect of my life... Where do I go from here?

Unknown said...

Sorry for all the typos...

Helen said...

It breaks my heart to see how many of us are in the same frigging boat, having to live with the excruciating hip pain that is so debilitating and is sucking the life out of us! I wish I could give everybody a hug!

I'm 41 and my hip issues have started 6 years ago. Gone misdiagnosed for years until fall of 2013 when my left hip was finally diagnosed with a labral tear. Had an arthroscopy that revealed two tears, some bone spurs and already mild arthritis. By the time of the surgery, I couldn't get up the stairs at the end of the day (had to do the step drag technique), couldn't turn over in bed without pain. Had the surgery in December of 2013, after 3.5 months of recovery got back to work as a fitness instructor. Pain never went away completely, but was definitely more manageable. Had a bad PT (as it turns out, didn't know any better at the time) who didn't do ANY manual ROM on me. So, now my ROM in the left hip is pretty much shot. That affects my knee and has caused chondromalacia... But that's another story :(
3 weeks after I got back to teaching, my right hip snapped. MRI showed the same thing - labral tear. After initial pain subsided, it was manageable and I didn't want to go under the knife so soon again, so waited till December of 2014 to do the surgery on the right hip. One tear this time. Recovery was a couple of weeks quicker. Was back to teaching after 3 months. All the time still having some pain every day, having to use ice packs and ibuprofen here and there.
Then in January of this year, all hell broke loose. Don't know if it was a particularly intense lower body routine I did in one of my classes or what, but both hips flared up immensely. Had cortisone shots in both, which helped for just a few weeks. My left hip is WORSE than it was pre-op. I now can not get up from a sitting position without pain. I have to spend several minutes trying to readjust the leg. And then sometimes, that's not enough and I scramble along the wall, because I can not put any weight on it for 15-20 minutes. I wake up every 2 hours at night because turning over in my sleep causes so much pain it wakes me up. I still teach fitness classes. The first 10-15 minutes are hard, but then the joints warm up and get lubricated and I feel minimum discomfort. But then I pay for it later as by the end of the day it's throbville, requiring codeine to calm down.
New MRI's are showing arthritis in both hips (mild in right and moderate in left) as well as possible new labral tear and possible ligamentum teres tear.

Surgeon recommends a new arthroscopy on the left WITH stem cell and PRP injections. I haven't seen anybody here mention those. Anybody have experience with those?

I also have been recommended to do a Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (by another surgeon) which is sort of a partial hip replacement, which is recommended instead of THR for younger active patients. Anybody hear anything about that?

I'm torn between trying another arthroscopy or going for BHR. I just know I CAN NOT live like this ANYMORE! And I'm a fitness instructor, who was going to open her own studio like a year ago! And all those dreams and hopes are on such a back burner, I can't even smell them anymore.

Need a decision soon :( Would appreciate any insight on BHR or stem cells or PRP!
Thanks so much!

Helen

Anonymous said...

Has anyone had cam impingement surgery and labrum tear repaired and still limping? But worse is the clicking. Constantly clicks. I can swing my hips and it is loud clicking. If I stand on my bad leg, clicking is so loud you can hear it from across the room. I have tried everything, PT, tens, swimming, muscle activation therapy, cortizone shots, etc but still limping, clicking and the inner thigh is so weak. I have always been athletic, tennis, running, downhill skiing, hiking and now everything is painful. I have to lift my leg into car because inner left thigh is so painful. PT says I have weak muscle but that doess not explain the clicking and will it ever stop. So frustrated!!! Anyone else deal with clicking?

Unknown said...

I also have same clicking and lots of pain after two surgerys.
Last one one year ago. Do all of exams and nobody knows what causes that pain.

Crazy mom said...

Someone in this blog asked for people who have had a successful labral tear repair. I fell and I'll finally had an orthopedic surgeon told me it was torn. I opted for arthroscopic exploratory to repair it. The first repair was not complete. So I opted to go in again the second one was successful. No pain walking sitting or anything. I will say this that if I do too much exercise in terms of going up and down hills or anything that is impactful to the inside of my hip socket I find it gets inflamed and hurts for a few days. Especially if I do too much twisting and torquing on that hip socket. Have not found anybody else online that seems to have these issues after having the labral debridement. I did not have it sewn and repaired I think it was just shaved down. Which leads me to believe that with no question in that hip socket I get inflamed easily with too much activity. Anyone else have this issue years later.

Anonymous said...

So glad to have found this forum. So sad to see that there doesn't seem to be an answer for issues here...
Had my scope in December. Was doing great until 3 months out then BOOM, felt like I did something to my adductor. Been in non-stop pain since. Had my 3 month appointment and they said it's tendinitis. Told me if it doesn't clear by 6 months then we'll get an MRI. I have completely lost all musculature in my hips so now feel unstable as well as the pain. I'm worse off now that I was pre-op and see no sign of relief.

I am sorry that all of you are dealing with this... I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. I just want to walk my dog. That's all. Even if I can't run again, just to walk around and be active that way without pain would be everything to me.

Dave said...

Hi guys, very interesting reading!
I'm 35 years old from Melbourne Australia and have had FAI, labrum repair and microfracture surgery done on both hip joints. Two years on and my pain/ tightness is worse than ever! My adductors are so painful it's ridiculous. Im interested to hear if anyone has similar symptoms. My doc says that one possible cause is that I am an identical twin and developed shallow hip joints, I can always blame my brother I guess haha!

Helen said...

I have come to believe that the majority of people that have had successful (long term) labrum repairs and FAI fixes are those for whom the initial injury was a result of a trauma. Maybe you fell, maybe you were in an accident, etc. For those of us with genetically bad hips that are prone to bone spurring and have irregular joint formations, the repair surgery provides either only temporary relieve or not much at all. I had two surgeries on both hips and two yeas later both hips got spurs again, suspected tears again and progressed arthritis on both sides. I see no point whatsoever in doing more of the same surgeries. Sad as it is, I'm gonna have to take the plunge and go on to the total hip replacement.

Brenda said...

Question about how soon to go for second surgery - especially regarding thigh numbness that I hope will eventually resolve?

I had hip scope to repair impingement CAM lesion and labral tear. Going into the surgery my surgeon mentioned my labrum was also degenerated and he discussed possibly doing reconstruction if he thought it was necessary. I chose him (out of many surgeons including famous NYC ones) because he was the only one willing to do a labral reconstruction with graft as a first surgery if he thought it was needed. When he got in there he said that the labral tissue seemed to have good integrity so he did just a repair (plus bone reshaping etc). I am now 3 months out and have crazy pain - same symptoms as before. We just repeated an MRarthrogram and it shows that the labrum has torn right out of one of the anchors. Surgeon says this is likely due to degenerated labrum and joint laxity which he also tried to tighten up at the first go around. I did have a steroid shot at same time as MRI injection and am getting some relief a few days later. My surgeon says to give it time and see how symptoms do, it is possible that this will scar over and I may get relief with time. He said if pain doesn't get better the next step is labral reconstruction (I have no arthritis to replacement isn't necessary). My question is how long do I wait? I have heard that for some people it takes 6-12 months to feel better. Also, at 3 months I still have thigh numbness from the traction. Do you wait until the numbness completely heals before you have another surgery with traction? My surgeon said waiting for the numbness to completely resolve before having another surgery with traction again, but he didn't say anything specific or definitive. Any advice on this?

Unknown said...

Wow, here we all are. This is crazy.
I'm 46 yrs old, 6 1/2 months post first FAI Cam/Pincer repair, labral tear repair with anchor placement, large full thickness delamination repair with fibrin glue and microfracturing, synovectomy, and I have mild dysplasia. I had bad symptoms for 11 years before someone finally diagnosed me, years and years on crutches.
I was actually leaving the house at 4 1/2 months post op and now I am housebound again.
I go back to see the surgeon next week. He says he will probably do a revision to see what has happened. With everything I have read even though I do not have arthritis and my bone is healthy a THR seems more and more appealing. I haven't heard much about failed THR's. :)
I have been reading about resurfacing and maybe an osteotomy to fix the dysplasia, but how far down the rabbit hole do you go when you have been in pain for over a decade?
Thank goodness we are not alone in this.
The tricky thing is we are all so different with our hip anatomy and symptoms and what might work for one may not be the answer for another. But this gives me strength to keep pushing for answers.
I am going to see what my surgeon says (he is meant to be one of the best hip arthroscopy surgeons) and weigh it all up. It seems even if I want to opt for the THR it's finding someone who will do it.
fyi - I had terrible adductor pain on my affected side post op for the first couple of months. I worked really hard at getting my glute strength back, working my quads and stretching my adductor to get it to relax again - it was like steel it was so tight. I know for me it was compensating for the hip joint. Once I strengthened all my muscles and corrected my gait it went away. But like I say we are all different.
I'm going to keep checking in here and let you know what i decide to do next.
Thanks for being here
Cheers,
Kate

Helen said...

Hi Kate (and everybody)

Just wanted to let you know that there are several Facebook support groups that have ongoing discussions on all the hip problems. You can get answers and suggestions for many issues. You'll just need to ask to join the groups

Hip Impingement Awareness https://www.facebook.com/groups/FAIhip/
Total Hip Replacement forum https://www.facebook.com/groups/Totalhipreplacementforum/

Hip Replacement Total Support https://www.facebook.com/groups/2348888488/

FAI fever said...

Unfortunately there is what we Radiologist call the "FAI fever". Now most of the surgeons see a labral tear on the MRI and call it FAI and recommend surgery. The initial results of the open FAI surgery were really bad thats why they stopped doing those. Now with the arthroscopic approach the surgery has come back and so many patients have suffered from this. This proccedure has not shown long term improvement in the quality of the pain or the patient. Also before 2014 the proccedure did not include closure of the capsule and up to 13% of patients will come back for revision surgery. The hip is a very tight weightbearing joint and this surgery is not ready for this kind of indiscriminate use. Some studies in asymptomatic patients have shown that 60% of people have labral tears and no pain. So if they tell you that your pain is coming from a labral tear alone you should be skeptical.

My recommendation is not going for this surgery. Try extensive therapy, injections and all of the non surgical options first. Once you go for surgery you start getting closer to a total hip replacement which also has complications.

Unknown said...

I have this to in addition to what noe 1.5 yrs later as my hip has been popping out, and total psoas pain, must lift my leg to get in my car left it to place on the gas ecsetera, and I currentlynhabe no insurance to address all this

Dreger said...

During my PT following labral tear repair on my right hip, I suffered an injury. My PT consisted of the heavy use of a stationary bicycle along with many repetitive motion exercises. I developed a severe case of greater trochanter hip bursitis in my right hip. This swelling was very visible over the greater trochanter and the pain centered around that area. Imagine a flattened teepee, the point being the bursa and the sides are the surrounding muscle tissue. Below the bursa, the IT band was not only tight but the pain running down my leg was due to the fact that that IT band was pulling up the muscle with it. Above the bursa, the pain fanned out from the IT band/ muscle as it was attached to the hip area. Because it is excruciating deformation it also pulled the muscles to the left and right of the bursa so tight that depending upon swelling could feel that the pain was also in the groin. Think of a rubber band around the hip and pulling it taut from where the bursa is severely swollen. I also believe due to the special condition of heavy swelling it also restricted blood flow. I also noticed depend upon the amount of visual swelling, my right foot will feel swollen or tingling or numb. I would receive temporary relief from all of the above when receiving a cortisone injection in the hip bursa. I found a doctor that performed bursectumy and IT band release. Two weeks after the surgery I was walking without pain without any tightness running down my leg from the IT band, no more foot and groin issue. Unfortunately I was instructed on my first day of pt to perform baby squats and on my second day after a few minutes on a recumbent bike I received another injury. My buttocks behind the greater trochanter swelled up immensely. My doctor stated that he did not know how to continue and I was abandoned by him. Now after 6 months the swelling has not gone down and I’m having difficulties finding another doctor. My right buttocks seems to be disfigured as it pulled towards the greater trochanter. I believe this could be either my gluteus medius bursa or detached muscle or tendon tear or a bad hematoma. It’s very unfortunate but since I’ve been relying on my left leg so much now 3 days ago my left leg has failed me. I have all the conditions noted earlier for greater trochanteric bursitis in my left leg. The swelling is visible heavy use of ice will not bring it down and even that familiar foot numbness is present. This is a new percentage injury it’s very tender over the trochanter and you can feel the abnormality. I feel desperate. My condition now is an unknown abnormality in my right buttocks greater trochanter bursitis in my left hip. I live in Florida but I’m going to travel anywhere at this point I need help desperate I’m 39 yearold male married with a 12 year old daughter that I haven’t been able to go outside and play in over 2 years I need help bad. I cannot sit I calmly stand for maybe 5 minutes at a time and limited to the laying on my stomach my elbows are worn
I have much fear in God. I’m so tired

Dreger said...

During my PT following labral tear repair on my right hip, I suffered an injury. My PT consisted of the heavy use of a stationary bicycle along with many repetitive motion exercises. I developed a severe case of greater trochanter hip bursitis in my right hip. This swelling was very visible over the greater trochanter and the pain centered around that area. Imagine a flattened teepee, the point being the bursa and the sides are the surrounding muscle tissue. Below the bursa, the IT band was not only tight but the pain running down my leg was due to the fact that that IT band was pulling up the muscle with it. Above the bursa, the pain fanned out from the IT band/ muscle as it was attached to the hip area. Because it is excruciating deformation it also pulled the muscles to the left and right of the bursa so tight that depending upon swelling could feel that the pain was also in the groin. Think of a rubber band around the hip and pulling it taut from where the bursa is severely swollen. I also believe due to the special condition of heavy swelling it also restricted blood flow. I also noticed depend upon the amount of visual swelling, my right foot will feel swollen or tingling or numb. I would receive temporary relief from all of the above when receiving a cortisone injection in the hip bursa. I found a doctor that performed bursectumy and IT band release. Two weeks after the surgery I was walking without pain without any tightness running down my leg from the IT band, no more foot and groin issue. Unfortunately I was instructed on my first day of pt to perform baby squats and on my second day after a few minutes on a recumbent bike I received another injury. My buttocks behind the greater trochanter swelled up immensely. My doctor stated that he did not know how to continue and I was abandoned by him. Now after 6 months the swelling has not gone down and I’m having difficulties finding another doctor. My right buttocks seems to be disfigured as it pulled towards the greater trochanter. I believe this could be either my gluteus medius bursa or detached muscle or tendon tear or a bad hematoma. It’s very unfortunate but since I’ve been relying on my left leg so much now 3 days ago my left leg has failed me. I have all the conditions noted earlier for greater trochanteric bursitis in my left leg. The swelling is visible heavy use of ice will not bring it down and even that familiar foot numbness is present. This is a new percentage injury it’s very tender over the trochanter and you can feel the abnormality. I feel desperate. My condition now is an unknown abnormality in my right buttocks greater trochanter bursitis in my left hip. I live in Florida but I’m going to travel anywhere at this point I need help desperate I’m 39 yearold male married with a 12 year old daughter that I haven’t been able to go outside and play in over 2 years I need help bad. I cannot sit I calmly stand for maybe 5 minutes at a time and limited to the laying on my stomach my elbows are worn
I have much fear in God. I’m so tired

Anonymous said...

Hi everybody,
I had a labrum tear in my left hip from playing soccer and got hip arthroscopy 6 and a half months ago.
I still feel weakness and tons of snapping during the day in that hip.
After the snaps my hip feels even weaker.... Has anyone experienced this??? Frustrating forsure. I go to therapy and do all the exercises to strengthen it up but seems to be getting worse..

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LR in NYC said...

Hello-

I had my FAI surgery on my right hip in March of 2016. I just had my 6 moth check up with my surgeon, and boy am I frustrated. I am still in PT. I was fine for the first 2 months pst surgery and then all of a sudden I experienced what felt like soreness, clicking, rubbing, and sudden onsets of burts of pain. All the while I kept walking through it and not limping. My PT is adamant that I not limp. Easier said than done. Also my job can be very active and physical at times. Work has accommodated me and I get breaks when it's busy.

I am on anti-inflammatories (Voltaren), to reduce swelling, as Naproxen lowered my platele count post surgery below normal. I don't think it really helps. I ice it especially after PT. I also am doing regular PT and active release therapy.

All the meanwhile I am still in pain and it's taking a toll on my personal life. I used to run, and walk everywhere. I roll over in my sleep and I am woken up. Not fun.

So at my latest follow up appointment, I found out that my hip sockets are on the deeper side. News to me after seeing the dr since February. This is contributing to the long recovery. They can't correct that issue. So for now it's more PT, and see the dr in 3 months, He did bring up having a total hip replacement, which scares the crap out of me. The cartilage is not worn away, but due to the hip socket issue now, it may have to be considered.

I'm not scared of the surgery or any of that. I know I will need another one done in 20 years. I just feel like why didn't they get the diagnosis right the first time. I keep being told it's a muscle issue, and now it's more involved. I didn't know about the deep sockets. I was told that everything looked normal. I don't really want them messing with the muscles and lengthening them. Sounds like trial and error to me. I am getting an MRI this week so that will answer what exactly is up. Too much guessing up until now. Also I had to push for the MRI. Kept hearing that they don't do them at the 6 'month recovery stage.

My questions for anyone in a similar predicament is:

1) If you had a total hip replacement after FAI, did they do the procedure anterior or prosterior?
2) how do you feel now?

Thanks for reading!

Helen said...

Dear LR, I had a THR 2.5 years after an FAI. The FAI helped somewhat initially, but then things started deteriorating and arthritis took off at lightening speed. My THR was 11 weeks ago, mini posterior. I specifically stayed away from anterior, because the risk of nerve damage is too high. The promises of faster recovery with anterior are simply not true. I belong to THR groups on FB and there are people with anterior that had surgery the same day as me and are doing worse. Can't really work on getting better if you are dealing with nerve pain. The most important thing is to get an EXCELLENT doctor with an EXCELLENT track record and then do YOUR part. I'm putting in 2-3 hours daily into my rehab. Walking daily, 3 times per week outpatient PT, daily 20 minutes stretch sessions, plus exercises for upper body and core strength. I don't limp, I can sleep restfully, and I'm getting to my previous level of fitness. Last week I started doing my cardio kickboxing workouts at home. Recovery from THR is more involved than FAI, but it can be done if you're willing to work hard. I have muscle soreness in my groin and most of the muscles in the leg are quite tight, which is normal after surgery, hence long daily stretches. BUT, I don't have the debilitating joint pain I had before my THR and THAT is an enormous relief.

Unknown said...

No

Unknown said...

No

Anonymous said...

I had a hip scope done in april of this year. They repaired my labrum and shaved bone down on my femur. I had been complaining since 3 weeks post op that it didn't feel right. Well I had an arthrogram done yesterday and my doctor called me this morning telling me that I have a hole in my capsule along with a partial tear in my labrum again. Has anyone else had this? I am in Montana.

LR in NYC said...

Helen.

Thanks for the reply. Happy to hear you are doing well after your THR. I also appreciate the information you provided. I just had an MRI done the other night. I am 6 months post surgery for FAI and am constantly complaining to my PT and Dr how uncomfortable I am. I had to push for the MRI. Hearing from them "Lets continue PT and the anti-inflammatories for 3 more months and see you then" just wasn't cutting it for me anymore.

So the results of the MRI showed that the area where I had the FAI surgery are fine. The labrum is not re-torn. I have fluid in the muscle/joint area, and my muscles are badly inflamed (no kidding). There is cartilage wear, but its no worse than what it was when I had the initial MRI 11 months ago. So more wait and see and I go back in December. He said I may be a candidate for THR, but it is really too soon given that my cartilage is not terribly worn down.

I am all, why wait for it to get completely worn down and be more miserable, if I am uncomfortable and its affecting my life, sleep, and daily activities now. I want to get back to running (not looking to set land speed records). But it was something I liked doing and I found great friends through it. I miss it.

I heard the same things you mentioned about the anterior THR procedure. I also think because of having FAI surgery I wouldn't be a candidate anyway, and they have to do it posterior. So I am fine with that. I'd rather take my time recovering anyway. Whats the rush to get it right.

I do have a great dr at a great hospital. He was actually the second opinion doctor that I went to. He came very highly recommended, and has done over 3000 FAI surgeries. Also has a great bedside manner, which is important. Also like his whole team that I interact with. I don't feel like he is stringing me along. Its more that I am frustrated with the recovery process. I have done everything asked of me. PT, Active Release Therapy, Stretching 2x a day, etc, and not getting relief. Thats when THR came up very briefly at the end of my 6 month checkin. So we will discuss more in December when I go back and see how I have progressed.

Best of luck in your continued healing. I will keep you posted when I get new information.

Helen said...

LR,

Is there anything they can do for the fluid in the joint? Sometimes, they can aspirate it. Or maybe you can get a coritisone shot to help with the inflammation? (though, you don't want to overdo it on those shots as they're detrimental in the long run). One word of advice, if you DO end up going for THR, I would recommend you find a DIFFERENT doctor from the one you currently have. He's done 3000 FAI, so that is what he specializes in. He can be an excellent doctor, BUT, you need someone who specializes on hip (and knee possibly) replacements. You want someone who ONLY does the replacements and has built proven skills and track record in those surgeries. Don't go with a doctor that does a bit of everything or has an FAI specialization and "also" does THR. It's VERY important to get the doctor who is focused in his daily practice on the kind of surgery you need. Check out vitals.com for best THR doctors in your area and have a consultation with a few to find the one you feel will do the best job for you. Also, FOR SURE talk about your goals for life quality after THR. I'm a fitness instructor and needed a guarantee from my surgeon that I will be able to come back to my activities. I've heard of surgeons saying: "you can't do yoga and you can't run and you can't do any impact. Just switch to walking, swimming and Pilates" Run like the wind from those doctors! Get the one that can promise you your expected quality of life!

Anonymous said...

I had hip impingement in both hips 5 years out on the right it does pretty good,except for weather. The left on the other hand is not so good. They both had a lot of extra bone, on ball and socket , they both had labral tears , and both had arthritis in them I don't know why but the left one hurts worse then when I went in for the initial surgery. What has gone wrong. Any ideas. Thanks

Helen said...

Your arthritis probably just kept going. FAI surgery does NOT fix arthritis. Get an x-Ray to see where your hip is

Liza Shaw said...

I had bilateral hip scopes in 2013, with labradorite tear repairs, removal of damaged cartilage due to impingement, and in my right hip, there was so little cartilage left, my surgeon elected to do a microfracture. 1 year after the healing of my right hip, it finally felt SO MUCH BETTER THAN it had felt in the previous years leading up to the surgery. I always noted that my right hip hurt less, post surgery, than my right, and chalked that up to the fact that it had the fibrocartilage from the microfracture, whereas the left hip has very little cartilage left but not little enough to have justified a microfracture.

I was doing great over the last 2 years, finally able to get back to exercising regularly, and I had taken off most of the weight I'd put on over the years being unable to exercise due to all of the hip pain.

Suddenly in the last 2 months, my right hip has been declining. I had gotten up to using the elliptical machine (something my surgeon said would be good for me as long as I didn't go in reverse motion) 50 minutes a day, 3 times a week. Suddenly my bursitis and soas pain came back with a vengeance. And then the piriformis pinching and aching, followed by profound shooting sciatic nerve pain... I've tried physical therapy and ultrasound therapy, massage, and rest, and nothing is helping. Muscle relaxers don't touch this pain and I am awakened all night long with the sharp shooting pains from the sciatica.

I am just wondering if fibrocartilage can eventually be worn down and dissolved, the same way the original cartilage did.

I am going g to ask my pain doctor to order an MRI asap, and possibly may return to the surgeon who did my hip scopes. I am wondering if anyone else on here has had this problem. It really seemed like the surgeries had drastically improved my hips, until just recently!

I wonder whether it is a better idea to just move to replacing the hip, or should I consider another scope if they find that the fibrocartilage is gone again. I am only 46 and I think that is still considered too young for a total hip replacement.

I am in such a vicious cycle. I can't exercise because of the inflammation. But this had led me to gain a lot of my weight back and I cannot fit into any of my clothes! I feel physically horrible. When I dance or stay up too late it is agony the next day. I am at my wit's end.

Liza Shaw said...

That should have said labral tears. Sorry, autocorrect changed it.

Liza Shaw said...

How do I make sure I get notified if someone responds to my post? I tried to click "Notify me" but I got an error message saying there was an error contacting the server. My email address is lizashawisgrateful@gmail.com . Thank you.

Helen said...

Liza, I can't comment on the microfracture, as I have not had it done, but I did have my left hip replaced 3 months ago at the age of 42, and I am doing so much better!! No more debilitating pain in my left hip, just the healing aches.

Unknown said...

Hi everyone. I learned much from detailed posts here. Very helpful!

I am female 58 years old, hip scope in March 2013 for labral tear: 1cm frayed cartilage debrided; CAM impingement, bone shaved down; microfractures. Good recovery for 3.5 months, didn't need pain meds, not even night of or next day after surgery. Then BAM!! sudden & severe pain in groin, deep in buttocks. MRI, xray, steroid injection into joint, injection for psoas tendon - nothing found to explain pain. Nothing helped decrease pain.

After 6 months of disability from this pain (and btw, onset of pain began in 2007, no diagnosis until 2010, so many years of pain & disability) - I decided to take my primary care doctor advice to try low dose of extended-release morphine. I trust her, she has experience with other patients' chronic pain. And yes, I'd tried everything. I tried morphine only because nothing else was working. It was a miracle, no side effects (other than constipation, but that's easy enough to manage), I only needed 1 tablet 2-5 times per week - though it's prescribed for 1 tablet 2 times per day.

I got some of my life back, could work part time, for 2.5 years I was so happy to be able to do long walks, socialize a bit, that I didn't "push" for a 2nd hip scope. Also, I was told by several hip surgeons because I have only "mild" arthritis, & remaining cartilage in joint is thick & consistent, odds are LOW (like 30%) for me to have good outcome after hip replacement. 3 hip scope surgeons said they didn't want to do 2nd hip scope, saying they don't *see* a reason to do it (nothing showed up on xray or MRI, AND I was not helped by steroid injection in hip joint) - they said a 2nd scope could just make my pain worse. Advised me to wait for at least 1 year.

Fast forward to July 2016 - Increasing pain & disability, needing full prescription of the morphine, 1 tablet 2x per day. Pain is worse by the day. I don't walk more than 1 block now, and only a few times/week.

Aug & Sept 2016 I met with 5 hip surgeons (3 who perform total replacement; 2 who perform arthroscopy). 2 of the replacement surgeons recommend a 2nd hip scope to see if there's a reason for this pain - that can't be seen on xray or MRI. 1 of the surgeons contacted hip arthroscopy surgeon in my health plan to meet with me and discuss possible 2nd scope.

Mon Oct 17 I will meet with the hip arthroscopy surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Seiber, Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. He seems very qualified, has done 500+ hip scopes.

I just hope that 1) he will agree to do 2nd scope
2) he will find something to explain the pain, and even better, it can be remedied
3) I can go back to working part-time, walking a few days/week, socializing again

I wish my case was "easier", in that moderate-severe arthritis would qualify me for probably good outcome after THR. As it is now, I'm told over and over "sorry, your case is a puzzle, we don't know what to do with you, other than help you manage pain"

I'm very tired of the rollercoaster rides. I really feel bad for those in your 20s/30s/40s, those who have families. In my case, at least the only life that's being screwed up is my own single life. And I got to age 49 before this hip problem started.

For those of you who eventually got some long-term relief, congratulations!! And thanks for contributing your stories and details.

For those of you who are "stuck" in a holding pattern, like I've been, let's share info as we are able to. A common theme I notice among folks like us who visit these blogs for labral tear/FAI is that we don't get enough info from the "experts", surgeons & orthopedists. Very common that patients are told one thing, then a completely different thing happens in real life.

After my appt Monday with hip arthroscopy surgeon I will post again with what comes out of the meeting.

Best of luck to everyone.

Unknown said...

I have exactly same problem. I have 27 years old. First surgery only labrum debridment and some bone. After 7 months with more pain, another surgery. I labrum detachment and bone shaved. The pain is worse after 4 weeks, and still have lot of pain at 1,5 years.
Lot of MRI, X-ray, lot of doctors (and my surgeon is the best one in Portugal and one of the best in Europe) and no one find cause of my pain. After lot of discuss my surgeon offer another surgery without any guarantees since he don't know why I have pain so I hold the surgery for now.
Do you have nerve damage?
In my opinion the pain in mechanical, because I don't have pain at sleep. I think is some bone that touch in muscle or maybe psoas that touch in labrum or the anchors.

Unknown said...

Hi Ricardo,
Sorry to hear you are having pain after 2nd surgery, and no doctors find cause of the pain.
I do not have nerve damage. Maybe you have psoas impingement, like you said psoas might be touching the labrum or the anchors. I hope another surgery would be able to check this out for you and take care of it.

Interesting that you don't have pain at sleep, thank goodness, good sleep is important. Pain happens when you are moving around during the day, yes? So, I see why your opinion is that pain is mechanical.

If you decide to have another surgery, can they videotape the surgery? I think that would be fantastic to have a video of everything the surgeon looks at during the surgery.

Let us know what you decide.

Unknown said...

Hi can you tell me who your second opinion was from and how you're doing now? I am also from Buffalo.

Unknown said...

I feel your pain . I am laying down with ice packs on my left hip groin and back with tears in my eyes as I read your situation. Its been 10 months since I had surgery on my hip I had labreal tear. It still hurts and pops .I call the docter and explain my symptoms.they don't care. My x rays show my pelvic is not aligned I have pain in my Si joint and I have pain in my knee down my leg.I dream of running,feeling the wind in my face ,I mostly dream of the day I won't wake up and feel the pain .the pain all day till I go bed and even sleeping is uncomfortable. I just know and feel there is hope one day I will find a great docter who cares.

Anonymous said...

Hi all, I am a 45 year old female living in Perth Western Australia. 2016 Easter weekend my son was taking me through his display home. Almost immediately after walking through the front door, then not seeing there was a step down I was in immense agony. When I had stepped down into the void I did not see, (I would say an approx. 200ml drop) I landed on my right foot, I didn't fall, my right hip took the whole impact. I could barely walk. As my son drove me to hospital, every turn felt like my leg was being ripped from the socked.
It took quite a bit to diagnose a labral tear which was operated on in early August 2016 at Joondalup Health Campus in WA. The tear was apparently fixed & some over hanging bone shaved. I was told by my surgeon that my labrum was of poor quality (what ever that means... Or means for recovery).
I have not had a moment without hip/groin &/or buttock pain since this accident or since surgery. It's been 4 months now since surgery.
I am going to have yet another MRI done in 4 days time. My referral says "Now has new positive iliopsoas signs? & checking status of repaired labrum, chondral surfaces, troch, bursa, iliopsoas.
I have done a little research on iliopsoas which seems to mostly look at avoiding this, but I believe "avoiding" is a little late for me.
I have had 6 steroid injections into my hip/buttock region in less than 6 months & I AM NEEDLE PHOBIC! needing antianxiety medication before each injection.
I feel the pain for each & every one of you here & I too, am so sick of limping around at snails pace. I am so sick of not being able to live my life the way I used to & being social. I am SO sick of being in constant pain. I am so sick of need regular pain meds & I am so sick of the endless appointments, scans, MRI's. These things all cost money, quite a bit of money! & we're getting to a point where we are not going to be able to afford the endless medical bills & medications. I am a bit scared as to what will become of me...
Especially when a hip replacement has been mentioned...
I find it a bit weird in all the research that I have done, I have not read a single mention of this injury coming from a single instance of intense impact as I have done. It seems more of a athletic injury (I suppose it could almost be a similar thing). This surprises me as I am pretty sure that I am not the only one to have had a stumble/fall of this nature & to have damaged themselves to surgery extent. Surely!

Charlotte Cosgrove said...

Hip Labrador tear repair June 2016. It took 18 months for my diagnosis, was worked up for low back pain., I guess because prior to surgery, I didn't have the typical groin pain. My tear was not a result of a single trauma I can remember, I believe it to be a result of being extremely flexible, 10 years of hot yoga, deeper into postures than should be humanly possible. I do remember suddenly in yoga though, unable to do postures I'd done for many years. My primary sources of pain were outer hip pain that kept me from sleeping at night, unable to forward bend, and terrible low back pain and muscle quivering in legs after and during sex. Low back worked up via MRI was negative, and finally MRI arthrogram hip showed the tear. I was back at a very physically demanding job, floor nurse, after 9 weeks. But it took me 4 months for the burning pain deep low in my groin and inner anterior hip to go away, just for everyday life, like walking. Finally I was ok with that, and just walking my dog. Now I am trying to return to a more normal me, have gone XC skiing twice, only a mile or so each time, and shoveling snow of late. In the last 6 weeks, my hip pops all the time, multiple times per hour, sometimes pain, sometimes more a nuisance, and the burning groin pain is constant now and awful. I find myself tripping, feel like my hips are uneven, and last week fell on the stairs, my poor leg caught up behind me, almost doing a split on the stairs. My fear is I reinjured it. My biggest fear is I will never get back to the athlete I was, downhill skiing, XC, hiking, snowshoeing etc.

Charlotte Cosgrove said...

Labral not Labrador...hahaha

Anonymous said...

I have had two hip arthroscopy, both for cam and pincer impingements along with labral tears. Left one in April 2016 and the right in July 2016. Left was worse and gave me more grief than the right pre operation. Now, left is pretty good with the odd pain here and there. However my right hip just was not right after surgery. Had a cortisone injection into the lining of my hip joint, had another mri and it showed scar tissue. Been working with trying to break it up, had another injection in the front of my hip beginning of December 2016. Hip felt good after it because I was resting it and not doing anything with it. As soon as I got back into my rehab and on the exercise bike... I am back to square one, pinching, aching and painful. They said if we werent able to breakup the scar tissue with the injections and rehab I would have to go back in for another arthroscopy to remove the scar tissue

Anonymous said...

2 weeks ago I had my second arthroscopic hip procedure. But let me take you back a bit. Less than a year ago I had my first to correct FAI (cam & pincer) and a torn labrum. Not sure if your post op medicine regimen was the same as mine, but I was given Prilosec and Indocin to take for the first 4 days the prevent Heterotopic Bone Growth. Then the next 30 days I was given Naporsyn. Optional was an anti nausea medication. About 6 weeks post op my hip started to bother me a lot. PT regimine changed, and was given Volateren as an anti inflammatory. Turned out the Naporsyn lowered my platelet count (its back to normal). Went to through this for the next few months with my dr. At the 6 month mark and 2 cortisone injections later I was adamant about getting an MRI. MRI showed everything was ok. But on my next visit at the 9 month mark, my dr looked at the MRI again and noticed something previously missed by both him and the radiologist. A 5mm hole in the hip capsule. I would need another hip arthroscopy to repair this hole. That's what I had done 2 weeks ago. At my post op meeting it was revealed that in addition to the capsular tear I did in fact develop Hereroptopic Bone Growth. I'm the 1% who got it. It happened in a few spots with the biggest being 10 mm. This is another cause of my pain. Also since it's in thensoft tissue, it doesn't show up on MRI's. I was again given Indocin and Prilosec after this surgery. Hope it doesn't come back a 2nd time. I'm doing ok now and have about 6 more weeks at home before going back to work.

Curious if any readers of this blog have experienced Heterotopic Bone Growth after surgery and what it was like for you?

Anonymous said...

I had my left hip done September 2016 after six months of very debilitating pain. My recovery went unbelievably well, and by the 4 month mark I felt great. However a couple weeks later I started slowly developing the same pre-op pain in my gluten, down the back of my left leg, and in my left groin. I followed up with the surgeon and he wants to do an MRI to see if it shows excessive scar tissue. He said that in about 5 to 7 percent of his patents, he has to do a revision surgery to clean out scar tissue. I've started to experience intermittent groin pain on the right side too, which makes me fear that it is torn as well. The surgeon said he wants to get everything squared away on the left side before looking at the right.

Has anyone had a revision to clean out scar tissue, and if so, was it successful?

«Oldest ‹Older   1 – 200 of 221   Newer› Newest»