A swing that hurts the hips

Repeatedly swinging a golf club can damage connective tissue lining the hip socket, researchers have found, producing hip pain that’s often misdiagnosed.

In the last decade, magnetic resonance imaging has increasingly detected tears or detachments of this tissue, called labral cartilage, as well as damage to the surrounding cartilage in many athletes, especially professional soccer, football and hockey players. But little attention had been paid to professional golfers, who frequently complain of hip pain and also are subject to overuse injuries. Their problems were often dismissed as arthritis or muscle strain until some of them began seeking treatment with arthroscopy. Using small incisions, a doctor inserts tiny instruments to look inside the damaged joint and then performs surgery.

Two doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have become the first to describe and treat the problem in this group.

“We feel they’re more predisposed because of the mechanics of the golf swing,” said Dr. Derek R. Armfield, a radiologist who reported last week on the cases of eight professional golfers at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. He and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Marc J. Philippon are “working on trying to figure out how to incorporate flexibility and strength training to minimize the risk, as well as proper swing techniques.”

The golfers -- all plagued by hip pain toward the inside of the groin -- underwent an MRI, followed by minimally invasive surgery to repair, remove or smooth down rough or damaged cartilage. They were pain-free after the procedure.