Hip Adductor Tears
What are the hip adductor muscles?
The hip adductors are a group of four muscles in the inner thigh. They originate at the pubic bone and insert along the thigh bone (femur). They function to move the legs toward the midline of the body and rotate the thigh inward. Hip adductor muscles are important for many athletic movements, including swimming, biking, and running, as well as normal day-to-day activities like walking and sitting. Due to improper gait patterns, weak adductor muscles can cause various hip, knee, and ankle injuries.
Hip adductor tears are tears of the muscle, tendon, or both. When someone, “pulls their groin”, this is the muscle that is injured. They are a common and often debilitating cause of pain and dysfunction. Tears may be partial or complete. Hip adductor tears are considered either overuse injuries or traumatic sports injuries.
Adductor tendon injuries are graded according to severity, with Grade 1 being pain and tenderness, Grade 2 as a partial tear, and Grade 3 as a traumatic tendon rupture. In severe cases, the tendon is torn off the bone along with a piece of bone (avulsion).
Groin pain is common in athletes who play sports that require cutting, pivoting, and kicking, such as soccer, football, and ice hockey. Hip adductor tears affect 10-30% of soccer and hockey players.
When the adductor tendon is repeatedly or instantaneously strained by a sudden muscle contraction from the inner thigh, it can lead to either a partial or complete tear of the muscle-tendon complex.
- Immediate and severe pain in the groin
- Tenderness and swelling at the site of injury.
- Decreased strength when trying to pull the leg into alignment.
Adductor tendon injuries are typically diagnosed clinically with groin pain, tenderness, and decreased strength. Hip surgeon, Dr. Daniel Kaplan, will review your medical history, discuss the circumstances of your injury, perform a comprehensive orthopedic examination testing hip strength and flexibility, and look for signs of injury, including bruising and swelling. Dr. Kaplan will order X-rays to evaluate for any bone injury and likely an MRI to reveal the extent of damage to the adductor tendon, including areas of soft tissue swelling.
Schedule an orthopedics consultation today.
If you’ve suffered from a hip adductor tear, schedule an orthopedic consultation today with Brooklyn’s leading hip surgeon, Dr. Daniel Kaplan. Dr. Kaplan is an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan and Brooklyn. He is also the chief of sports medicine at Bellevue Hospital and the chief of sports medicine at the VA hospital in Manhattan He is a Sports Medicine and fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon specializing in diagnosing and treating hip conditions. You’re in expert hands.
At a Glance
Dr. Daniel Kaplan
- Fellowship-trained Sports Medicine and Shoulder Surgeon
- Expertise in Complex Shoulder Hip and Knee minimally-invasive reconstruction procedures
- Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU
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