While sports-related hip injuries tend to be less talked about than knee or shoulder problems, damage to the hips interferes with your sports performance as well as daily living. Musculoskeletal ultrasound imaging is a reliable diagnostic tool to help get you back into action.
The sports medicine providers at Princeton Sports and Family Medicine, P.C. have the medical knowledge you need when recovering from hip pain. The key to effective treatment and fast recovery includes accurate diagnosis.
For that, we often turn to the information that ultrasound imaging provides.
The loads placed on the hips can lead to a variety of injuries causing pain. Repetitive strain injuries may affect runners, while sports requiring fast changes of direction create other hip issues. It’s easy to strain muscle tissue in the hip region.
Stress fractures are also a common repetitive strain injury for long-distance runners. These types of fractures can cause pain without always compromising hip joint function.
Common conditions that cause sports-related pain in your hips include:
Ultrasound produces images from inside your body using sound waves to visualize soft tissues and bone surfaces. Ultrasound has an advantage over X-rays because ultrasound requires no ionizing radiation to create images.
Ultrasound can help our caregivers understand the pain in your hips by showing irregularities in ligaments, muscles, nerves, and tendons, as well as hip joint anatomy.
Ultrasound requires no preparation on your part, although we may ask you to wear a medical gown to allow for direct skin contact between your skin and the ultrasound transducer.
Hip ultrasounds typically reveal problems such as:
If you’re new to ultrasound, it’s a safe imaging method with no side effects. It’s easy to tolerate for anyone and a typical ultrasound session takes about 20 minutes.
Once our team sees the ultrasound results, we’ll formulate a treatment plan to meet your needs. Often, rest and conservative care combined with physical therapy may be all you need. We’ll discuss treatment options for more serious injuries if needed.
Call or click to book an appointment with Princeton Sports and Family Medicine, P.C., in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. There’s no need to live with hip pain, so plan your visit today.
