Clinical Examination of the Athletic Hip

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csm.2005.12.001Get rights and content

Section snippets

Standing Examination

The initial element in the structured evaluation (Table 1) should be the general body habitus, principally gait and alignment. Because of the hip's role in supporting body weight, hip pathology can often be identified in gait abnormalities [1]. An antalgic gait (one that involves a self-protecting limp caused by pain, characterized by a shortened stance phase on the painful side so as to minimize the duration of weight bearing) is an indication of hip, pelvis, or low back pain [33], [34]. The

Summary

The 11-point athletic hip examination can be effective in screening and evaluating patients who have hip pain, and can be helpful to direct further diagnostic studies (Table 9). A marcaine injection test may be necessary to distinguish between hip and back pathology. This and other auxiliary clinical tests may be helpful in further evaluation of the hip (Table 10). The majority of examinations that compose the 11-point athletic hip examination were developed over many years, before the

First page preview

First page preview
Click to open first page preview

References (47)

  • U.M. Kujala et al.

    Osteoarthritis of weight-bearing joints of lower limbs in former elite male athletes

    BMJ

    (1994)
  • H. Lindberg et al.

    Prevalence of coxarthrosis in former soccer players: 268 players compared with matched controls

    Acta Orthop Scand

    (1993)
  • B. Marti et al.

    Is excessive running predictive of degenerative hip disease?: controlled study of former elite athletes

    BMJ

    (1989)
  • E. Vingard et al.

    Sports and osteoarthritis of the hip: an epidemiologic study

    Am J Sports Med

    (1993)
  • T.D. Spector et al.

    Risk of osteoarthritis associated with long term weight-bearing sports

    Arthritis Rheum

    (1996)
  • E. Vingard et al.

    Musculoskeletal disorders in former athletes: a cohort study of 114 track and field champions

    Acta Orthop Scand

    (1995)
  • S.B. Adkins et al.

    Hip pain in athletes

    Am Fam Physician

    (2000)
  • T.T. Mottonen et al.

    Value of joint scintigraphy in the prediction of erosiveness in early rheumatoid arthritis

    Ann Rheum Dis

    (1988)
  • C.J. Weaver et al.

    Femoral head osteochondral lesions in painful hips of athletes: MR imaging findings

    AJR Am J Roentgenol

    (2002)
  • T.R. Williams et al.

    Acetabular stress fractures in military endurance athletes and recruits: incidence and MRI and scintigraphic findings

    Skeletal Radiol

    (2002)
  • Byrd J.W.T. Hip arthroscopy. Presented at the 2005 Meeting of the Arthroscopic Association of North America. April...
  • K. Margo et al.

    Evaluation and management of hip pain: an algorithmic approach

    J Fam Pract

    (2003)
  • M.D. Brown et al.

    Differential diagnosis of hip disease versus spine disease

    Clin Orthop

    (2004)
  • Cited by (73)

    • High-Level Athletes Who Did Not Return to Sport for Reasons Unrelated to Their Hip Achieve Successful Midterm Outcomes With a Benchmarking Against High-Level Athletes Who Returned to Sport

      2022, Arthroscopy - Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery
      Citation Excerpt :

      Hips were evaluated with anterior, lateral, and posterior impingement tests, as well as for the presence of painful internal snapping with the hip flexed, abducted, and externally rotated. Patients were also assessed for microinstability with anterior apprehension, abduction-extension-external rotation, and prone external rotation tests.7–9 Radiographic imaging, including the standing and supine anteroposterior pelvis, modified 45° Dunn, and false-profile view, was acquired and reviewed before surgery.10–13

    • Evaluation of Athletes with Hip Pain

      2021, Clinics in Sports Medicine
      Citation Excerpt :

      Importantly, the clinician should always perform a neurovascular assessment of the lower extremities, which can be done with the patient in the seated position. This assessment includes bilateral lower extremity pulses, sensation, motor strength, and deep tendon reflexes.22 Side-to-side variations in the neurovascular assessment should be documented and further work-up pursued, as indicated.

    • Hip Pathology Evaluation and Imaging

      2019, Operative Techniques in Orthopaedics
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text