Will a hip laberal tear heal on its own?

No, it won't. It's just like a pitcher with a torn labrum in his shoulder, or anyone with torn cartilage in the knee. It will not heal itself. You doctor should have been pretty clear about that.

I've PR'd since having hip surgery in the spring of '08, though I would never claim to have competed an anything resembling a high level. Ask Nick Willis, though. He's had surgery for a torn hip labrum.

No, but it will get worse "on its own."

I have one and didn't have surgery. It was a relatively minor tear and the doc I went to wouldn't do the surgery anyway. I also had a bit of a sports hernia. Keep in mind I'm 52. I took 11 months off before I could run for even 10 minutes without significant pain. I was doing these 10 minute runs over those 11 months here and there to test it out. I couldn't even crosstrain. Walking bothered me. I actually thought I'd never run again. But then in July after 11 months or so I did a 10 minute test run and didn't feel that bad. Over the next few weeks I did 2-3 runs a week of about 2-3 miles, then 4 miles, then 5-6 miles. And that's where I'm at now. I can run about 20-25 miles a week with very little discomfort. It feels great just to be running any miles pain free right now. I doubt I'll ever be able to get back to 60-70 miles per week. My sub-3 marathon goal is likely gone for good. But I love just doing a few miles at any pace. It's about 8-9 pace fyi.

I've heard labral tears dont heal and that may be correct but the smaller ones like I have can become asymptomatic. I can attest to that. You have to consider how important running is to you. Are you young, are you elite, can you wait that long. Also sometimes surgery can make no difference or even make things worse. It's up to you. I chose not to pursue surgery and I'm glad I didn't have it. Again though, I'm 52 and certainly not elite.

At least it wasn't a hip labial tear. They think they're cool, but they're not.

Your location has ice already? That's rough. Hope you heal fast.

I got one about two years ago. It's relatively minor and was very painful for a long time. Now, it doesn't bother me all that much and, at peak, I'm up to 100-110 mpw or so. I didn't have surgery.

I tore my rt labrum while on a treadmill in Feb of this year. Did lots of deep tissue and ART. LIke others, I couldn't run 10 mins or even cycle.

Kept up the ART and it seemed to help. Had MRI in Sept w/ confirmed diagnosis of FAI. Pain level was 1-2. I can now run 40-50mins w/o pain. I work on glute exercises and hip activation. I would recommend Dave Scott's video on youtube. -good luck and be patient.

You will heal, just not properly or effectively, this is why there is surgery, if you torn your hip, fixing it is the only option, otherwise you're stuck never competing effectively again.

One or 2.. wrote:

I slipped on the ice and hurt my hip. I had an MRI and I have a labrum tear. The doc says I need surgery but I was wondering if anyone has any experinece with this injury and was able to still compete at a high level?

The answer to your question is not necessarily "will my labral tear heal on its own", but rather is the CAUSE of your pain the labral tear showing up on the MRI? You want to make sure it's not something else within or just outside of the hip joint. What does the pain feel like?

There are a lot of people who can show positive for a LT but it's asymptomatic. If the tear looks quite large, then I think it's safe to say it's a cause of your pain; however, if your surgeon says it's questionable, you maybe want to get a 2nd opinion on the imaging. The good thing is that hip arthroscopy is not an extremely invasive surgery. It doesn't sound like you necessarily need osteoplasty which is good news.

But as a few other posters said, no, your labral tear will not ever heal on it's own. Some people are able to get relief from pain or dysfunction, but it's not going to heal. Some people find ways around this depending on the cause of the tear and where it occurred. For example if the tear was occurring over a period of time (not acute like in your situation) they might be able to strengthen and change their biomechanics in order to stop the damage before it's a major problem. This might be enough to prevent surgery. However, it's usually not the case.

PRP- Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy is another option and has been shown to heal areas if the body with a lack of blood flow.

It's pretty controversial still (fairly new procedure and not many studies). There were also a couple elite athletes who had had the procedure done with good results, but whose dr was busted smuggling HGH, which leads to speculation. It's very expensive since most insurance's will not cover it, but if you have the means, might be worth a shot (excuse the pun).

That said, if you only have a labral tear, not FAI, the surgery has a far less recovery time and much better results when returning back to activity.

Good luck.

That's great news. I have a tear in my hip and I am devastated. I was running well and doing 50+ per wk. I've been sore over 4wks and it is sore (but bearable) to walk. How long were you sore for before you could get back to say 50-60 p/wk? I really want to avoid surgery at all costs!

FWIW, I've had a hip labral tear (albeit minor) for about three years and I decided not to have surgery. It's much better now than it used to be...it only bothers me every now and then.

I thought it said - will a hip liberal tear (from crying) heal one of its own.

No, it will typically slowly get worse, although sometimes it can get worse rapidly.

How come labral tears are so common these days?

quackery? wrote:

How come labral tears are so common these days?

1) More people run, and

2) Labral tears are now fixable, leading to an increase in awareness of this type of injury.

Excuse my skepticism, but I can't help wondering how many of these people are being exploited?

If you can get through this I think it is pertinent information on labral tears.

I significantly tore my left labrum when I was 21 riding a mechanical bull at a bar and I believe I minimally tore the right side at the same time. I had severe pain in my left hip joint every time I squated any weight, ran, jumped, stood for too long, you name it. I saw two different doctors that said it was just tendinitis and will go away in 8 weeks before I pleaded with the doctor for MRI. He gave me a MRI alright, without dye...basically, an improper way to view the labrum. I went from 6'4" 198 to 170 because I could no longer work out and stay active over the course of two years. I saw an orthopedic surgeon that said tubercle bursitis and gave me an injection without ever doing a "proper MRI." Finally, after the two years of damaging my hip further, basically turning my labrum into shredded wheat, I saw an orthopedic surgeon that knew what he was doing (kind of, I'll get to that later). He ordered the "proper MRI" called an arthrogram MRI. Basically, the arthrogram involves a large needle fluoroguided into the joint to administer a steroid to help relieve pain and organic chemicals that leak out of the labrum while the MR takes images immediately after administration of the dye. Where the dye leaks out and how is an indication of the labral tear.

I had an arthroscopic surgery to shave down my femur head (which he said was a genetic predisposition to labral tears), and also had the labrum itself reattached. I was in intense pain for only a few days but had lingering pain for about one year! This was partly due to the fact that the scope went through deep muscle in order to get into the joint and they take a long time to heal near the attachments...after the year I got a little better but still had pain of about 6 to 7, down from 9 before the surgery. My right side also began to hurt more and more. I went in to see my surgeon 2 years after the surgery so 4 years post injury and an X-ray was taken of my left hip. I had significant heterotopic ossification (post surgical bone growth) around the femur running into the hip acetabulum. This new bone growth occurred because (and this is where I said the surgeon kind of knew what he was doing...) I was NOT treated with any kind of preventive measure to stop heterotopic ossification. It is standard to do either spot radiation or a strong prescription NSAID called indomethicin.

I have seen two hip specialists that specifically deal with hip trauma and heterotopic ossification. The first surgeon out of U of M wanted remove the bone growth and do spot radiation. This would have been a very invasive surgery without a scope cutting deep muscle attachments...so I was leery. The second opinion doctor said some very interesting stuff...he said that he had gone to a seminar given by one of his heroes, a Swiss ortho doc that pioneered hip preservation through arthroscopic and other approaches to the hip joint, and he left feeling very unimpressed because of all the complications from hip preservation and results of success...he said he is not sure if hip preservation surgeries such as labral tear repairs are helping more than hurting and actually preserving the hip from total replacement. He then told me that if I were his son he would not want me to do the invasive surgery to remove the bone growth. So now, after canceling the surgery after much internal and external debate, I live with pain 1 out of 6 or 7 days for the left side and pain every 5 or 6 days on the right side (because the right side has a labral tear as well, confirmed with arthrogram MRI 2011). I have discomfort everyday but not necessarily pain. I am just going to live with it until I have to do a total hip replacement, hopefully in 20 years...we'll see how long arthritis sets in.

It's not that simple- let me tell you my story as it's half-way through.

I have a torn left hip labrum, injured presumably while playing softball and aggrevated by more intense core exercises.

The main issue was- getting in my car in the morning, picking up my leg and putting it into the car. It felt like a groin pull, and i'd had those before, so i waited and waited and waited before going to the doctor. It was the clicking and popping which made me think maybe it was something more when i was doing some high knee stuff- anyways, 9 months into the injury I got an arthrogram, and had a tear....about 1 1/2 inches long. I got a cortisone shot, i went to PT for a month or so, and it didn't help, and started down the path of preparing for surgery. During that time, I went back to softball, kinda ditched the PT, but did start doing some of those hip adductor and abductor machines along with my normal elliptical workout. I did a 5K and then a few weeks later ran 5 miles when i noticed my right hip was hurting.....oddly, about this time, my left hip stopped hurting entirely, roughly a year from the start. Now i'm at about month....15 after initial injury and my pain level is nil in my damaged hip, my right hip is in pain and had a cortisone shot as well, but has no damage after getting an MRA. They both do have a cam lesion.

So i'm set to have surgery in less than a month to repair something that doesn't hurt. I'm afraid that by not getting it fixed, i run the risk of damaging the joint further, but i'm torn (pardon the pun) because my body may have found a work around.

I am prepared very soon to do a very intense workout, to do a true test on that torn labrum, to find out what it can really handle. Then hopefully i'll be in enough pain to be able to justify this surgery.