Brittany Garrett, 33, began experiencing excruciating hip and groin pain a few years after graduating from college.

“I couldn’t drive for more than 20 minutes without this deep, nagging pain in my hips, and it would escalate the longer I stayed in the same position,” she says. “I just would keep adjusting the way I was sitting to try and relieve the pain.”

Bit by bit, her pain worsened until Garrett, a physical therapist, saw orthopedic surgeon Etan Sugarman, MD, at Northwell’s Lenox Health Greenwich Village location.

Yet, diagnosis often takes years and multiple doctors. Because FAI sometimes causes only low-grade aches and pains, many don’t seek out help until their condition has done serious damage to their cartilage. Over eight years, Garrett tried physical therapy and even enlisted her co-workers’ help to loosen her hip joint. Like many people who think of themselves as having tight hips, she found that trying to push through the pain only made things worse.

Garrett was relieved to finally learn what was causing her pain. When she heard about femoroacetabular impingement surgery — that was when she began to feel excited.

Femoroacetabular impingement treatment

FAI is especially common in athletes whose sports require lots of squats and pivoting motions. Garret fit the description to a tee. As an outside hitter on Quinnipiac University’s Division I volleyball team, she spent much of her time in college with her hands held high and her knees bent low as she hit and blocked the ball. The cause of FAI is unknown, but researchers suspect genetics and environmental factors, such as stress on the hip joint from sports during adolescence.

Physical therapy is often the first step. Improving the hip’s dynamic range of motion and strengthening the supporting muscles can take pressure off the joint. If this isn’t enough, medications or injections sometimes help relieve the pain. Ultimately, patients with ongoing pain that limits their activity level or affects their quality of life may need surgery.

“Surgery is the only way we can correct the underlying anatomic problem,” Dr. Sugarman says. “In more than 90% of cases, we can relieve pain, suffering and dysfunction and return the person to their desired activities. Additionally, treating the condition early enough may prevent future damage to the hip and hopefully delay or prevent hip arthritis in the future.”

Femoroacetabular impingement surgery: A game-changing approach

Femoroacetabular impingement surgery: Finding the right team

Minimally invasive femoroacetabular impingement surgery is easy on patients — but it’s a demanding operation for clinicians, says Dr. Sugarman. “The hip joint is a very tight space, leaving little room to maneuver. So you need significant training and experience to do this procedure well.” 

When looking for a surgeon, it’s important to ask how often he or she does the procedure — there’s no magic number, but higher-volume surgeons may have lower complication rates, says Dr. Sugarman, who has performed hundreds of these surgeries at Northwell Health outpatient surgical centers. “It’s also important for people to feel comfortable with the entire team of nurses, physical therapists and others,” he says. “They are key in helping you navigate the postoperative period and getting back to doing the things you want to do.”