Labral Tears

A hip labral tear is an injury to the labrum, the cartilage that surrounds the outside rim of your hip joint socket. It helps to deepen the socket and provide stability to the joint. It also enables the smooth movements of the joint. Labral tears can be either traumatic or degenerative in nature. A traumatic labral tear is common in sports injuries caused by the sudden change of direction and twisting movement. Degenerative changes to the hip joint in older patients can also lead to a labral tear. Symptoms of Labral tears commonly cause intermittent pains in the hip joint and sometimes clicking or snapping and a feeling of giving way or sudden seizing of the joint. Diagnosis involves a specialist examination which can reproduce a click that indicates a tear and an MRI scan. Injection of local anaesthetic into the joint space is sometimes performed to confirm the location of the pain. If the injection completely relieves your pain, it is likely that the cause of the problem is located inside the hip joint.  Treatment involves keyhole surgery to either repair or trim the tear.