Joint Preserving Surgery
Hip Dysplasia
Hip Impingement
Minimally Invasive Hip Surgery
Hip Impingement

Hip impingement, also known as femoro-acetabular impingement, is a common developmental abnormality. The problem can affect both men and women, affecting men more often.  The deformities are likely responsible for the vast majority of hips needing replacement in men between the ages of 30 and 55.
Femoro-acetabular impingement occurs from a combination of abnormalities of both the ball (femoral head) and socket (acetabulum). On the ball or femoral side, there is usually very little clearance between the ball and neck of the femur in the front part of the joint. On the socket side, the socket is usually somewhat overdeveloped in the front and the socket is facing slightly the wrong way. These two problems combine so that the hip joint jams in the front when the hip is bent all the way forward. The problem may arise around the time of birth but is usually noticed by men more heavily involved in sporting activities. Hockey, football, soccer and long-distance running are sports have produced the highest incidence of patients with this condition and so it appears that these activities probably accelerate the problem.
If the hip has not degenerated too far, femoro-acetabular impingement can be treated, usually by arthroscopic osteochondroplasty.   Dr. Murphy specializes in the treatment of hip dysplasia but no longer specializes in hip arthroscopy.  We can refer you to surgeons who specialized in that field if necessary.


Note: You must have Adobe Reader to save PDFs to your personal computer and to print them.
Get Acrobat

For more information about the clinical experience with these techniques, please view the following manuscripts (please note that these manuscripts are for educational purposes only and should not be reproduced without permission from the publisher):

Murphy SB, Tannast M, Kim Y-J, Buly R, Millis MB. Surgical Treatment of the Adult Hip for Femoroacetabular Impingement, Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research, December, 2004(PDF)

Tannast M, Kubiak-Langer M, Langlotz F, Puls M, Murphy SB, Siebenrock KA. Noninvasive three-dimensional assessment of femoroacetabular impingement. Journal of Orthopaedic Research. January, 2007.

Tannast M, Kubiak-Langer M, Murphy SB, Ecker TM, Puls M, Langlotz F, Siebenrock KA. Computer-assisted Simulation of Femoro-acetabular Impingement Surgery. In JB Stiehl, WH Konermann, RG Haaker, AM DiGioia (eds.): "Navigation and MIS in Orthopaedic Surgery", Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag. pp 448-455, 2006.