Acetabular Labral Tears

Abstract Anterior hip or groin pain is a common complaint for which people are referred for physical therapy, with the hip region being involved in approximately 5% to 9% of injuries in high school athletes.1 Although anterior hip pain is known to result from a number of musculoskeletal and systemic pathologies, a tear of the acetabular labrum is a recent addition to the list that is of particular interest to physical therapists. This mechanically induced pathology is thought to result from excessive forces at the hip joint2,3 and has been proposed as part of a continuum of hip joint disease that may result in articular cartilage degeneration.2 Although the number of recent articles in the orthopedic literature identifying acetabular labral tears as a source of hip pain is increasing, labral tears often evade detection, resulting in a long duration of symptoms, greater than 2 years on average, before diagnosis.4–8 Studies have shown that 22% of athletes with groin pain9 and 55% of patients with mechanical hip pain of unknown etiology2 were found to have a labral tear upon further evaluation. In order to provide the most appropriate intervention for patients with anterior hip or groin pain, physical therapists should be knowledgeable about all of the possible sources and causes of this pain, including a tear of the acetabular labrum and the possible factors contributing to these tears. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review the anatomy and function of the acetabular labrum and present current concepts on the etiology, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of labral tears.