u/pizzzzzzzzzza12

Hey Everyone!

Had a left hip arthroscopy performed back in November to fix a significant CAM, large labral tear, and had microfracture due to cartilage damage.

I've always had intermittent right hip pain as well, but it really flared after my left hip surgery so I've been seeing a dysplasia specialist to try and decide if I should get a PAO on my right hip. Currently have a small labral tear, CAM, and LCEA about 16-17.

I met with her yesterday and she was pretty adamant that I needed to get the steroid injection in my right hip for her to be able to use it as a diagnostic test, and I was curious if anybody else has had this experience with a hip surgeon before. She's been patient and realistic in our conversations thus far so my first assumption was that she wanted to exhaust all conservative measures in addition to gaining some insight into my pain symptoms I guess based on how I do with the injection.

Any insight is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hey Everyone!

TLDR; Just curious to hear how other parts of your body compensated for your hip dysplasia, especially if your dysplasia was particularly bad on one hip vs the other and any treatments that helped.

Some personal history; you don’t need to read lol
Scoliosis fusion 16 years ago
3 right knee surgeries following a climbing accident

Have had intermittent right hip pain since I was a kid, mainly would flair with heavy running mileage or single leg weighted exercises but never focused on it mainly cause doctors were so focused on my spine. After all the surgeries on my right knee, my left side went to shit. Left groin, hip, and left lower back (QL, SI) had chronic pain for 6+ years before I finally started to get some answers last year. Was diagnosed with pretty bad CAM impingement and large labral tear on the left (borderline LCEA 24ish) but was also diagnosed with more significant dysplasia on my right during that time (LCEA 17) with just a small labral tear. Got a few hip preservationist opinions and they all recommended to go ahead with the arthroscopy on the left which I had 6 months ago. Cartilage damage was pretty bad and I also needed a microfracture.

My recovery has kind of stagnated and I’m curious if some of my lingering symptoms are due to my more significantly dysplastic right hip due to my body compensating so much. It just feels like my right leg doesn’t share my body’s load at all. I get the traditional outer hip pain and tight muscles around my right hip, but I have a lot of symptoms on my left side; sore left foot after a lot of walking, residual left hip soreness, and the left lower back never improved even following my left hip arthroscopy.

The dysplasia specialist I’ve see for the right has gone over a PAO and what it entails, but she also made it seem like if I’m not in excruciating pain Yet maybe it isn’t worth it, but idk I also don’t want to wait until I’m in excruciating pain to fix something that maybe I could fix now and help balance me out.

Long post…

6+ years of left lower back pain and bilateral groin and hip pain but worse on the left. Started seeking treatment about a year ago and saw two hip preservation docs who said I had really bad impingement and a large labral tear on my left hip and dysplasia on my right. They never mentioned me having dysplasia on my left hip.
The surgeon I ended up choosing to do my hip arthroscopy had me meet with a hip dysplasia specialist for my right hip to get some education but made it sound like PAO is pretty extreme so I didn’t really consider it.
The dysplasia specialist I saw did a really in depth eval and appt but again made it seem like she was in agreement for me to go ahead with the scope and see if that helped things. I had my FAI/labral repair/and microfracture done end of November and my cartilage damage was worse than they expected. All the rehab and crunching around really flaired my right hip so I saw the hip dysplasia specialist again on recommendation from my scope surgeon and she did an MRI that showed I have a small labral tear on my right as well. Although we discussed what a PAO entails the conversation still felt like “don’t worry about this now it’s really extreme”.
My left hip isn’t healing as well as I’d like so I decided to seek out another surgeon for a third opinion on my whole situation. In prep for my appt with them, I decided to go back and read all of my docs clinical notes in more detail. I was kind of surprised to see that my left hip did have confirmed borderline dysplasia with LCEA of 22 whereas my right one was worse with LCEA OF 16-17 and higher Tonnis angle I think?

I feel kind of stupid honestly and like I put a lot of trust into the in person conversations I was having with my physicians versus reading clinical notes in more detail and doing my research online. I really didn’t know a lot about hip dysplasia before but now after researching more this past few weeks I’m a little frustrated that a PAO wasn’t even talked about for my borderline hip. I get that I’m not too symptomatic on my right but it feels like why wait for me to be limping in order to do something?

Idk I want to just trust that my surgeon wouldn’t have operated on me if she really felt like my left hip was too dysplastic for it to be a successful recovery but reading more testimonials on here is making me feel like scopes on borderline cases just aren’t as successful overall. I made another appt to meet with this hip dysplasia doc again in about a month so we can have a more in depth discussion now that I feel more informed and I have another appt with a different PAO specialist but it isn’t until end of July.

Idk exactly what im trying to get out of posting this, but maybe I’m just curious what other people’s experiences have been like trying to advocate and organize the different input and opinions you receive and if anybody has had success with not doing a PAO on a borderline hip and got the scope instead

I also have scoliosis with a fusion of my thoracic spine so overall I just don’t have the best anatomy and pelvic alignment to work with i guess

Hey Everyone!

I had FAI/labral repair/microfracture surgery for a large labral tear, CAM impingement, and cartilage damage back in November with Dr. Hagen at UW for my left hip that didn't have dysplasia. My right hip also has a small labral tear and has generally felt unstable with a lot muscular pain and pinching. I have mild dysplasia on my right hip and met with Dr. Unno (also with UW) and we discussed what a PAO entails, but at the time I wasn't heavily considering it because it seemed intimidating. Curious if anybody else in the Seattle area has any experience with Dr. Unno or could recommend another surgeon to get another opinion.