Kinematics and Kinetics of cam hip impingement
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Kinematics and Kinetics of Cam Hip Impingement
IRAS ID
148278
Contact name
Justin Cobb
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Research summary
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a condition of the joint associated with wear and tear of the bone and the protective layer of cartilage in between. It can cause chronic pain, and thus negatively impact the quality of life. In the UK alone 8.5 million people are affected. It is still not know what causes the condition and how it can be avoided.
In this study we are trying to understand what could cause OA of the hip joint. The hip joint can be best imagined as a ball and socket joint. In a normal healthy hip, the ball (formed by the top of the thigh bone) can move freely in the socket of the pelvis. However, the shape of the joint is thought to influence wear and tear. A cam-shaped hip joint has a small abnormality on the ball, which means it is no longer a sphere. During certain movements this small abnormality hits against the socket wearing out the cartilage. This first leads to hip impingement(cam-type hip joint with pain) and eventually, this can lead to early onset of hip OA. Not everyone with a cam-shaped hip joint does get painful symptoms and OA and we would like to find out why.
We think that the way you move might be important contributor to causing hip OA. Some individuals subconsciously might use muscles to pull the bump(on the cam-shaped hip joint) away from the socket, and prevent the socket and ball from abutting against each other. If different motion patterns could be identified, the progression of the OA could be delayed or even prevented. In our study we want to compare the movements of cam hips with and without symptoms.
REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0448
Date of REC Opinion
5 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion