Hip impingement

If your teen or child has been diagnosed with hip impingement, you’ll have concerns and questions about his health, treatment, recovery and other issues. It may comfort you to know that Children’s Hospital Boston is a world leader in pediatric orthopedics and we have a wealth of experience helping children with this fairly common hip condition. We specialize in innovative, family-centered care that supports your child and family every step of the way.

About hip impingement

Hip impingement (femoral acetabular impingement or FAI) is a mechanical disorder of the hip.

• Hip impingement is a common cause of hip stiffness and some pain
• The condition can lead to arthritis.
• Hip impingement commonly goes unrecognized for years, since it’s rarely painful in its early stages.
• It’s diagnosed by noting both certain limits in hip motion and related signs on x-rays and other imaging tests.
• If diagnosed early enough, non-surgical or surgical treatments can be very successful. If left untreated for years, the cartilage damage may be too severe for a completely successful outcome.
• In the normal hip there is smooth gliding motion of the round head of the thighbone within the acetabulum socket.
• Hip impingement can occur:

The condition can affect both boys and girls, although there’s some evidence that cam impingement may be more common in boys, while pincer impingement may be more common in girls (see bullets above). 

How Boston Children's Hospital approaches hip impingement and other developmental hip conditions

Whatever treatment your child’s hip problem requires, you can have peace of mind knowing that, as national and international orthopedics referral centers, Children’s Child and Adult Hip Preservation Program and Orthopedic Center have vast experience treating children with every kind of hip condition, some of which few other pediatric hospitals have ever encountered. As a result, we can provide expert diagnosis, treatment and care for every level of complexity and severity of hip impingement.

Unique expertise in treating adolescents with hip problems. Many adolescents and young adults with hip problems need diagnostic and surgical techniques that differ significantly from what’s indicated for younger children. Children’s Child and Adult Hip Preservation Program, led by Michael Millis, MD, and Young-Jo Kim, MD, PhD, is the only such program of its kind. We offer the extensive experience and the most advanced techniques, with clinicians and researchers who are dedicated to finding better ways to care for adolescents and young adults with hip problems.

Leaders in Bernese periacetabular osteotomy (Bernese PAO). At Children's, we’ve performed more than 1,400 Bernese periacetabular osteotomies since 1991 to correct hip dysplasia in teens and adults. Our large volume makes us the most experienced center in the United States for this procedure—and the second-most experienced in the world. The Bernese PAO—the most powerful procedure for repositioning the hip socket—is Children’s standard treatment for a hip socket that’s too shallow in a patient whose socket has finished growing (typically children ages 13 and older).

One of the first programs.Our Orthopedic Center is one of the world’s first comprehensive pediatric orthopedic programs, and today is the largest pediatric orthopedic surgery center in the United States, performing more 5,000 procedures each year. Our program, consistently ranked among the top three in the country by U.S.News & World Report, is the nation’s preeminent care center for children and young adults with developmental, congenital, post-traumatic and neuromuscular problems of the musculoskeletal system.

 Hip impingement: Reviewed by Young-Jo Kim, MD

© Children’s Hospital Boston, 2011