Femoroacetabular Impingement-FAI

There are several congenital and developmental hip disorders that a person can face-hip dysplasia, FAI, Legg-Calve-Perthes, and Slipped Femoral Epiphysis are some examples. However along with hip dyplasia, femoroacetabular impingement, or better known as FAI, is often misdiagnosed or overlooked until the patient is in their 20's/30's. At this time there is often pain and cartilage damage.

Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is a condition of too much friction in the hip joint--the ball (femoral head) and socket (acetabulum) rub abnormally creating damage to the hip joint. The damage can occur to the articular cartilage and/or labral cartilage.

There are 2 types of FAI-Cam and Pincer
Cam describes the femoral head and neck relationship as aspherical or not perfectly round. This loss of roundness contributes to abnormal contact between the head and socket.

The Pincer form describes the situation where the socket or acetabulum has too much coverage of the ball or femoral head. This results in the labral cartilage being "pinched."

*It is possible to have hip dysplasia and FAI--as was the case for both of my hips!
Here is a website that provides a lot more information about FAI- http://www.hipfai.com/

The diagnosis of a labral tear may often result in finding FAI and/or dysplasia.