Birmingham Medical News
Abnormal development in the hip joint in adolescents and young adults is more common than was once thought. The condition can lead to hip dysplasia and hip impingement and usually requires surgery to correct the problem.
Michael K. Ryan, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at The Hip Center at Andrews Sports Medicine in Birmingham, is one of only a few hip preservation surgeons who surgically treats these hip abnormalities with a surgical technique called periacetabular osteotomy (PAO).
"Hip dysplasia is a developmental abnormality of the hip socket that results in a shallow acetabulum, while a socket that is over covered, or too-deep, can cause impingement," Ryan says. "Both bony abnormalities change the load-bearing mechanics of the hip joint, leading to damage of the cartilage and labrum in the hip, which can eventually lead to arthritis at an early age."
In a healthy hip joint, the ball, or femoral head, should be perfectly round and the acetabulum, or hip socket, should be perfectly concentric so they match up well. In individuals with hip dysplasia, the acetabulum doesn't develop fully, which makes it too shallow to contain and support the femoral head. The abnormality causes misalignment in the hip joint and ...
