I’m a young adult, why should I come to CHOP for my hip problem?

Why should you choose the Young Adult Hip Preservation Program instead of a doctor who mostly treats adults? Because we are national experts in treating hip disorders that you may have been born with or developed during childhood.

For some people, an underlying hip disorder doesn't become problematic or painful until adulthood. However, many of these problems stem from a pre-existing pediatric hip condition that our experts understand well. Treatment for such disorders requires the knowledge and expertise of surgeons and other doctors who understand the full developmental spectrum of the human hip joint — like those at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Unlike many centers that focus only on adult hip problems, at CHOP, we make every effort to preserve your natural hip joint. Our goal is to improve your function and maximize your ability. For some patients, the goal may be a return to high-performance athletics. While, for others with severe disease, the goal may be simply to get back to performing normal activities of daily living without pain. At the same time, our experts consider the long-term impacts of different treatments, talking you through the positives and negatives of each treatment choice.

For many patients, treatment begins with physical therapy, medications, or injections. Some patients may be good candidates for hip preservation surgeries like periacetabular osteotomy, surgical hip dislocation, or hip arthroscopy. These procedures are designed to preserve the natural hip joint, maximize function, and lower the likelihood that the patient might need a hip replacement as an older adult. 

While it is not common, hip preservation is not a reasonable option for some of our young patients with advanced hip disorders. For these patients, total hip replacement may be the best choice for restoring mobility and quality of life. CHOP offers special expertise for total hip arthroplasty in adolescents and young adults, especially ones with other medical conditions that require support from a pediatric center.

Our patients and peers agree: CHOP's Young Adult Hip Preservation Program has the experience, expertise and comprehensive care to change your life.

Our experience

CHOP’s Young Adult Hip Preservation Program is the largest and most comprehensive program in the region for adolescents and young adults with hip pain. Our surgeons, Wudbhav N. Sankar, MD, Kathleen J. Maguire, MD, and Christopher J. DeFrancesco, MD, perform some of the most complex orthopedic surgical procedures in the world.

We have special expertise in hip preservation in adolescents and young adults. This encompasses surgeries like periacetabular osteotomy, surgical hip dislocation, and hip arthroscopy – procedures that are intended to improve the shape and function of the hip joint, preventing or slowing further damage to surrounding bone and cartilage. By fixing your natural hip, our doctors can prevent or delay the need for replacement with an artificial hip. Our surgeons have extensive specialized training in hip reconstruction for young adults and are among the only physicians in the region performing certain highly complex hip preservation surgeries on adolescents and young adults. When nonsurgical treatments (like physical therapy, medication or injections) have failed and hip preservation is not a good option, we now offer hip replacement surgery for select teens and young adults with advanced hip disease.

Our expertise

Our team of hip specialists is actively researching the conditions that cause hip problems, investigating new surgical techniques, and tracking long-term outcomes for patients with hip disorders. Our leaders are members of major pediatric and young adult multi-center research groups, including the International Hip Dysplasia Institute (IHDI), the International Perthes Study Group (IPSG), the Global Hip Dysplasia Registry (GHDR), the Hip Hope Network, and the Academic Network of Conservational Hip Outcomes Research (ANCHOR).

CHOP is a national leader in research on most hip conditions that affect young adults. Areas of active research include:

• Examining surgical outcomes for Ganz periacetabular osteotomy (PAO)
• Hip arthroscopy and surgical dislocation of the hip
• Cartilage preservation techniques such as osteochondral allograft and autograft transplantation for the femoral head
• Evaluating the disease characteristics of conditions that require hip preservation
• Refining imaging techniques for avascular necrosis and early osteoarthritis

Our comprehensive care

The Young Adult Hip Preservation Program offers complete care for young adults with hip defects or injuries including evaluation, treatment and long-term, follow-up care.

We offer a full spectrum of diagnostic and imaging testing (MRI, CT scans and X-rays), and use individualized, disease-specific imaging protocols that include cartilage mapping technology. By better visualizing the entire hip, our clinical team can provide a more accurate diagnosis and help guide surgical treatment if needed. The high-quality scans done with our CHOP radiology team allow your orthopedic doctors to best understand your unique hip problem and how to best address it.