acetabular labral tear

Hi All, Just found out I have torn the cartilage called the labrum in my left hip, diagnosed finally
by MRI. They also found a large synovial cyst on my L4L5 vertebrea. The combination of these two
have made running impossible for almost a month now. Often daily tasks are too painful, but at times
I can xc ski, do strength training, and use things like a stationary bike, rower, elliptical, etc.
The MRI reports says "significant tear, complete seperation and debri present". It appears that hip
arthoroscopy to repair the cartilage and clean out debri is the only option. I am scared to death
that this is going to mean I won't be able to run again. Has anyone had this procedure and been able
to return to at least serious if not competitive running? I sure hope someone can give me some hope!
TIA Andrea

Ripanco wrote:

> Hi All, Just found out I have torn the cartilage called the labrum in my left hip, diagnosed
> finally by MRI. ... It appears that hip arthoroscopy to repair the cartilage and clean out debri
> is the only option. I am scared to death that this is going to mean I won't be able to run again.
> Has anyone had this procedure and been able to return to at least serious if not competitive
> running? Andrea

Dear Andrea,

No one has written back to you with their experience, and likely no one will, because your
injury is so unusual. There's only one person who can really tell you how it goes for lots of
people who have this injury and how they recover -- your orthopedic surgeon -- who, hopefully,
has taken care of such folks regularly and knows their experience. If you'd like further
reassurance, ask your orthopedist for a referral to another orthopedist for a second opinion.
Anyone contemplating surgery with apprehension about it (that would be just about every sane
person!), is entitled to as much reassurance as possible so you can undergo this necessary
procedure with confidence and optimism. Doctors don't get offended at requests for 2nd opinions
because they appreciate this need for reassurance. I wish you best of luck and success.

-- Josh Steinberg MD, Syracuse

>No one has written back to you with their experience, and likely no one will, because your injury
>is so unusual.

Hi Josh, Thank you for your response! I was starting to get a complex since I don't post here often
and was afraid no one wanted to talk to me!! I did not realize that this was so unusual an injury.
To ad injury to injury, they also found a large synovial cyst on my L4-5 spine! Talk about your body
letting you down! I am now afraid that may prove to be the more difficult condition to treat. Not
encouraging to say the least and the last several days have been hard. I do see a new Sports
Medicine MD,DO tomorrow. Thanks for the well wishes too.

Andrea in VT

Ripanco wrote:
>>No one has written back to you with their experience, and likely no one will, because your injury
>>is so unusual.
>
>
> Hi Josh, Thank you for your response! I was starting to get a complex since I don't post here
> often and was afraid no one wanted to talk to me!! I did not realize that this was so unusual
> an injury.

FWIW, I couldn't find any references in pponline or sports injury bulletin and they usually have
many sports injuries. However, I did find a couple refernces through google that you may or may not
have seen:

http://www.physioroom.com/experts/ex...ard_villar.php

Two quotes within there: "One obviously has to be very careful about arthroscoping a premier
sportsmen as there is a clear morbidity following hip arthroscopy, of the order of 5%. It is not a
technique for the occasional operator for this reason!"

"At the three month point, assuming all is well, I take the plunge and allow the patient back to
unprotected, full activities."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...4&dopt=Abstra-
ct "Three of them underwent arthroscopic debridement of their acetabular labrum tears and returned
to their sporting activities within 8 months" [doesn't say what happened to the other 15 athletes]

At least in some cases, people do resume full activity.

You might try googling on a combination of the terms: acetabular labrum tear. This pulled up the
above info plus a bunch of others that I didn't pursue.

Good luck.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope