Hip pain to consider: hip-femoral impingement

  Many young people, especially those who usually like sports, sometimes experience hip pain and discomfort, especially when squatting, but they cannot find the problem when they go to the hospital to take X-rays (most doctors at the grassroots level may not have the concept of hip-femoral impingement, that is, there is hyperplasia and calcification around the acetabulum, and one word to generalize the hip joint hyperplasia), in fact, at this time, the femoral head neck may already have a significant impact, but the X-rays can not be expressed. This delays the treatment, and if the movement continues, it may further aggravate the impingement and lead to hip arthritis, and in severe cases, joint replacement is required.  Hip impingement syndrome in young patients is mainly due to abnormal development of the femoral neck or acetabulum, resulting in impingement of the femoral neck and acetabulum within the normal range of motion, resulting in hip pain. Over time, as the impingement increases, the cartilage at the edge of the acetabulum or femoral head becomes damaged and the pain gradually increases.  Since the impingement mostly occurs when the hip joint is flexed and the impingement site is mainly located in front of the hip joint, pain in the groin area often occurs, especially when the legs are squatting together. In addition, because the patient is young, the onset of the disease is not long, the location of the lesion is special, and the lesion mainly involves cartilage tissue, it is difficult to detect the presence of the lesion by ordinary X-ray examination. The usual MRI is also defective in identifying the location and nature of the lesion. A special MRI of the hip joint can help to clarify the diagnosis.  Therefore, patients with hip pain, especially in the groin area, should be examined early to clarify the diagnosis. Once the diagnosis of hip impingement syndrome is clear, surgical investigation and treatment should be performed as soon as possible. On the one hand, the impingement lesion should be repaired to reduce the chance of reoccurrence of the impingement and thus eliminate the damage to the articular cartilage. In addition, the damaged cartilage should be cleaned to prevent further expansion of the cartilage damage. If the onset is prolonged and the extent of cartilage damage is large, the results of the surgery will be compromised. Once the surgery is missed, the extent of cartilage damage will increase and eventually lead to osteoarthritis of the hip joint, which will seriously affect the patient’s work and quality of life.