Athletic Pubalgia
Saturday March 18, 2006
Athletic pubalgia, also known as a sports hernia, is a potential cause of groin pain in athletes. Most commonly seen in soccer and hockey players, athletic pubalgia can cause significant symptoms and interfere with play. Unfortunately, diagnosing a sports hernia can be difficult and treatment may require surgery...read more about sports hernias.
Comments
I enjoyed your article on sports hernias. I have been diagnosed with one but I can not find a doctor to treat it. I have been suffering for over a year! If anyone knows a doctor in the Nashville, Tn area or S.E. please email me.
Mike, I just came back from a surgery consult and the Doc said the very best in the country is Dr William C Meyers…out of the Philly area.
i had surgery for a sports hernia about 3 yrs ago…done by Dr. Meyers in Philly. took about 1 yr to heal 100%, but then again i was 43 when i had the surgery
My son had surgery with Dr. Meyers in Philadelphia. It took about 7 months before he was fully healed. It was worth the trip from Indianapolis to have him healthy again!
Hello. I’m going to see Dr. Meyers soon as I’ve been told I have a sports injury. I’m a soccer player. I occasionally vomit when the pain is bad and I’m exercising….did any of you experience vomiting with sports hernias? Thank you.
My pain is in the left groin. It bothers me quite often when I’m standing on my left and moving my right leg all around. Does this sound familiar with you pains?
There is another doctor in central NJ who performs the surgery, Dr. Boyarsky. He is a very good surgeon who performs some very complicated surgeries. Dr. Meyers does both sides, regardless of whether the other side needs to be done, and also cuts through tendons, which will take longer to recover. Boyarsky knows exactly what to look for to find the tears, by having you strain your stomach muscles during an ultra sound-it won’t show at rest. He’s also performed a ton of these with success, so he’s also an option and worth a try.
I’m a ballet dancer and I was diagnosed with a Sports Hernia by a doctor named William Brown in Palo Alto, CA (http://www.sportshernia.com/) back in June. He said I had two small tears on the left and right side of my internal obliques (lower abdomen). It seems like it started by my pulling my aductor longus (back in March), which caused my internal obliques to work overtime to compensate. I started feeling a slight discomfort in my lower abdomen in April (a few weeks after I pulled my groin). I should have immediately started resting it then, but I kept dancing with the discomfort until I started feeling more intense pain in mid-May. I finished some performances in May with quite a bit of pain and a lower level of performance and then I saw Dr. Brown about 3 weeks later.
He said I had a 50% chance of the muscles reconnecting with scar tissue and returning to normal fuction if I rested for at least 6 wore weeks and then slowly returned to my activity. If not, I would need surgery. I completely rested for 8 weeks and the pain got much better, but not completely.
Then I saw a doctor named Dr. Luftman at Kaiser Permanente in LA. He claimed that physical therapy to increase core strength would help me recover without surgery. His physical therapist encouraged me to do abdominal excercises in the range that is not painfull for me (with my legs in front of my torso) and to slowly work my way into the range that is painful right now (with my legs behind my torso), which will supposedly cease to be painful by that time I work my way up to it.
The whole thing is confusing. One doctor will make money if I have surgery and the other will make money if I regularly go to PT. Meanwhile I’m going broke trying to treat this condition that has kept me out of work for over 3 months. I’m doing the PT and I’m gradually starting to dance again. I feel pain in certain movements and no pain in many others. It’s a very strange condition. I hope I don’t need surgery.
Are there any other BALLET DANCERS with this condition reading this??? Please share!
In response to Matt. Dr. William Meyers does NOT do both sides on all people. I had a unilateral tear of the RA and adductors. Right side only. Meyers is the inventor of the surgery and the best. He also has the best MRI that detects and shows tears. i had multiple negative MRI’s locally that showed nothing.
Do not let anyone operate on you with mesh for this injury. It will give way again in a couple years except it will have a boatload of scar tissue to complicate things even more.
My husband had surgery to repair a sports hernia in December 2007 and has since returned full force to endurance sports – specifically, triathlon. He had surgery in Milwaukee by Dr. Richard Cattey. He is thrilled with the results.