Few concepts in medical theory have been so enduring as this one. The word, from the Latin iflammatio, to ignite or set fire, was probably introduced by the Roman Aulus Cornelius Celsus in the 1st century AD. Galenic medicine adopted the term, defining it according to four symptoms: redness, swelling, excessive heat, and pain. Traditionally, inflammation was explained as resulting from an excessive flow of blood to an injured or diseased organ. But by the 18th century, it was attributed to non-specific external irritants as well as psychic trauma. Inflammation was thus considered the local irritation of tissues brought about by the corresponding nerves.
Filed under: Topic review , Inflammation, The Lancet
CL Lewis, SA Sahrmann
Anterior hip or groin pain is a common complaint for which people are referred for physical therapy, with the hip region being involved in approximately 5% to 9% of injuries in high school athletes. Although anterior hip pain is known to result from a number of musculoskeletal and systemic pathologies, a tear of the acetabular labrum is a recent addition to the list that is of particular interest to physical therapists. This mechanically induced pathology is thought to result from excessive forces at the hip joint and has been proposed as part of a continuum of hip joint disease that may result in articular cartilage degeneration. Although the number of recent articles in the orthopedic literature identifying acetabular labral tears as a source of hip pain is increasing, labral tears often evade detection, resulting in a long duration of symptoms, greater than 2 years on average, before diagnosis. Studies have shown that 22% of athletes with groin pain and 55% of patients with mechanical hip pain of unknown etiology were found to have a labral tear upon further evaluation. In order to provide the most appropriate intervention for patients with anterior hip or groin pain, physical therapists should be knowledgeable about all of the possible sources and causes of this pain, including a tear of the acetabular labrum and the possible factors contributing to these tears. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review the anatomy and function of the acetabular labrum and present current concepts on the etiology, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of labral tears.
PHysical Therapy, Vol. 86, No. 1, January 2006, pp. 110-121 – full text
Filed under: Assessment, Conservative therapies, Hip
