hip labrum

Sorry to hear this.  I am not familiar with hip labrum injury so I can't help you with any experience.  However, as you might expect the best case and worse case of most injuries are the same (no problem/career ending) so I'd caution against letting Dr. Google get into your head.  Make sure you find a good orthopedic surgeon who works with athletes and is very familiar with sports-related injuries.

I danced in college and this is pretty common with ballet dancers. We had one in our company. Her hips clicked and were painful. She got cortisone shots until after our performance and chose to go non-surgical in the off-season, just resting. It flared back up the next year again and she ended up doing serious damage so I would definitely consult with multiple doctors. The three interventions (non-surgical which helps not heals, arthroscopic and full surgery which could even involve bone shaving) should really be dependent on severity and expected use post-surgery. Arthroscopic and rest were 6-8 weeks for my friend. Full surgery was 3-4 month before she could dance again. Also, if it’s like ballet, the wear and tear of squatting while catching may have contributed to degeneration of the joint.

I pray that the damage is minor and the recovery speedy!

I’m not any kind of expert, but my experience:  Near the end of his HS Jr fall (2019), I noticed my son, a pitcher, was limping pretty badly after starts. He denied it was a problem, but I dragged him to the orthopedist. The doctor thought a labrum tear was unlikely, but ordered an MRI to rule it out. Turns out the boy had a small tear.  He was lucky—tear was in his plant leg, and was a result of him tilting too far back at the top of his motion and creating an impingement.

My soon spent the winter resting, doing physical therapy, and working on changing his delivery (the extra tilt wasn’t adding anything to his velo, but changing the ingrained habits of many years took some time). He was able to pitch opening day of 2020 (until COVID…) and has had no recurrence of the problem. The doctor said it could be the tear healed, or just that it was no longer being irritated.

Bottom line: PT and rest can help. A lot. We did not get far down the road of considering surgery, but were told it is not particularly difficult and recovery is not particularly bad (although it would mean months of missed baseball—I don’t recall how many). We also were told tears can sometimes heal on their own, but only with rest—you won’t play your way back to a clean bill of health.

To clarify: My son spent the winter resting from pitching, squats and other exercise that involved his hip. He did a lot of PT and other practice.

Chico’s info is much more current than mine so definitely lean on that!! ;-)

To add:

Son had surgery on both hips (usually impingments are bilateral) the summer after his freshman year of college.  One month apart.

During the springs of high school ball he always complained and I did take him to an ortho, xrays showed nothing, and they gave him exercises which I am sure he did not do.  You can only control a 16 year old but so much.

Freshman year of college, he heard a pop, and the protocol was PT for (6-8?) weeks, which he did, had a cortisone shot so he could play during the season.  PT did not help.  BE SURE TO GET A CONTRAST MRI.  Before surgery, you will need PT to determine if surgery is warranted.  Surgery was outpatient, and he was up going to watch a baseball game two days out.  PT started two days after surgery.  Then surgery, PT, etc one month later on the other hip.

He did not run or use treadmill during fall practices, but was in full mode by the time the season started.

PM me if you want any other info.  His medical files are about 15 feet away lol

thanks to everyone who replied.  they did an mri and we met with a surgeon yesterday.  first doctor got it wrong.  it was an avulsion fracture in the hip rather than a torn labrum.  best possible news.  no surgery.  rest for a couple of more weeks, then some pt.  back on the field in about 4 weeks. 

That’s great! — glad to hear it. Second opinions are valuable things…

@Chico Escuela posted:

That’s great! — glad to hear it. Second opinions are valuable things…

You’re ugly AND you dress funny. 😀

@Wildcat Fan posted:

thanks to everyone who replied.  they did an mri and we met with a surgeon yesterday.  first doctor got it wrong.  it was an avulsion fracture in the hip rather than a torn labrum.  best possible news.  no surgery.  rest for a couple of more weeks, then some pt.  back on the field in about 4 weeks.

So glad to hear this, injuries are incredibly anxious moments. Best wishes for a quick rehab

One of my 16 year old boys had an avulsion fracture in his hip stealing second last spring. He took the rest of the spring off but played in the summer with no issues.