Hip Dysplasia - Fact Sheet
What is Hip Dysplasia ?
This is where bony morphological changes have occurred either the neck of the major thigh bone (femur) or acetabulum (hip socket). This can lead to irritation of the surrounding joint structures, causing pain in the hip, groin and sometimes into the bottom and low back.
What causes Hip Dysplasia?
Hip dysplasia is usually occurs on either the femoral neck or hip acetabulum (socket) in our youth due to genetics, tight swaddling or other birth factors such as being born in the breech position. These bony changes are categorised generally into retroversion, anteversion and global, with each one having different aggravating positions.
Retroversion: Refers to over-coverage at the front of the hip and under-coverage at the back.
Anteversion: Refers to under-coverage at the front and over-coverage at the back.
Global: Refers to either over or under coverage globally (both at the front and back) in the hip joint.
Signs and Symptoms of Hip Dysplasia ?
- Anterior/lateral hip pain, groin pain
- Pain with particular movements, i.e. bending/crossing legs, getting in/out of car, bending to touch toes
- Pain with fast walking or standing for too long
- Pain or stiffness after activity or in the morning
- Irritation of the gluteal muscles (a secondary issue)
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How Do We Treat Hip Dysplasia ?
Manual treatment – At MD Health we utilise hip mobilisation with movement (or MWM) to try to restore the normal gliding motion of the hip joint in its socket. This may be combined with hip traction or other soft tissue work to help control your symptoms. This should not be solely relied upon, as evidence shows this approach works best in conjunction with strength training/exercise.
Tailored Clinical Exercise will help to strengthen the hip stabilising muscles that support and control the movement of your affected hip. This is the most important part of your hip rehab! This itself can often relieve pain, and works best to reduce pain in the long-term.
Referral – if your symptoms do not reduce after about 3 months of exercise-based rehab, our staff may choose to refer you to a hip surgeon to explore further options.
