Should I Be Concerned About a Stiff Hip?

Dr. John Knight of Golden State Orthopedics & Spine talks about having a stiff hip.

Question: I have a stiff hip. Should I be concerned about it?

Answer: This may simply be a matter of the soft tissues about your hips — your muscles, ligaments and tendons — not being adequately flexible to allow full motion. Of more concern, you may have changes to the shape of the bones, the ball and socket joint, which now prevent some extremes of motion and may injuring such structures as the labrum of your hip. The labrum acts as a seal around the ball and socket joint. Abnormal boney formations on either the ball side or socket side of the hip joint will cause repetitive trauma and tearing of the labrum and damage to the cartilage or bone. Athletes functioning at a high level are at a higher risk of intolerance to these boney lesions. This problem is called femoral acetabular impingement.