Hip Pointer Injury

A hip pointer injury is an extremely painful acute injury, usually resulting from a direct blow to the hip. This injury will cause damage and bruising (a contusion) to the iliac crest (hip bone of the pelvis), surrounding muscles (i.e. abdominal, hip abductors, hip flexors, hip rotators), and even the greater trochanter at the top of the femur.

The damage usually results in bleeding internally into the surrounding muscles which can cause swelling in the muscles and intense pain during simple leg movements. It is uncommon, but in the case of a severe blow to the hip an avulsion fracture to the iliac crest may occur as well. An avulsion fracture is a tiny piece of bone pulling away from the iliac crest by the muscle.

This injury usually occurs in contact sports such as football (direct helmet hit to the hip), hockey (hit into the boards) or soccer (goal tender diving), but can result from a hard fall. Wearing hip padding will reduce the risk of a hip pointer injury or minimize the severity if a hip pointer injury occurs.

Symptoms of Hip Pointer Injury

If you have a hip pointer injury you may experience some or all of the following symptoms:

• Acute pain, bruising and swelling along the iliac crest in the area of the injury
• Tenderness and pain at the front and side of the hip
• Internal bleeding at the front and side of the hip which may extend into the abdominals and gluteus medius and minimus (hip abductor muscles)
• Loss of muscle strength in the hip abductors if these muscles are injured
• Pain when breathing deeply, sneezing, coughing or laughing
• Limited range of motion in the hip joint

Hip Pointer Injury Diagnosis

A full examination by a doctor should be done to check for damage to the organs in the abdominal area.

An x-ray may be taken to rule out a fracture and an MRI to see the soft tissue in your hip and abdomen. This will give your doctor a clear picture of the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the area, and will allow him or her to look for any internal bleeding.

Treating a Hip Pointer Injury

Treating a hip pointer injury usually only requires non-invasion, conservative measures. Begin with cold compression therapy for the first 72 hours following the injury and when any further irriation occurs. Using cold compression therapy not only reduces pain and swelling, it also minimizes tissue damage that occurs if swelling remains in the area. With less tissue damage, less healing will be required.

Therapeutic ultrasound will help to reduce inflammation and clear the area of damaged tissue. More importantly, therapeutic ultrasound will treat the scar tissue that forms in and around your hip joint as your hip pointer injury heals. This is an important step in the healing process to regain flexibility and improve range of motion in your hip joint and leg muscles.

Then, treating your hip pointer injury with Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy, or BFST^®, is the most natural way to speed healing of your injured muscles. BFST^® enhances your body's own healing process by simply increasing the amount of blood that flows to your hip to improve the health of all the tissue in the joint by delivering an abundance of nutrients to the area.

Freezie Wrap^® Cold Compression Therapy

To decrease swelling, inflammation and relieve the pain of a hip pointer injury, doctor's recommend cold compression therapy. Using the Back/Hip Freezie Wrap^® within the first 72 hours of an injury to your hip and iliac crest is an effective way to relieve pain and swelling while limiting the amount of damage done to your tissue. In addition, cold compression therapy can reduce, or even eliminate, the need for NSAIDs that can be harmful to your body.

The Back/Hip Freezie Wrap^® is the cold compression tool you need to treat your hip joint and surrounding tissue in an effective and convenient way.

Cold compression therapy works by interrupting and slowing nerve and cell function in the injured area and reducing swelling that can block blood vessels. This is important because once blood vessels are blocked or damaged, they can no longer carry oxygen and nutrients to your hip, leg and abdominal muscles and tissue cells begin to break-down.

Without cold compression therapy, cellular break-down and tissue damage continues as the cells do not get the oxygen they need to survive. By limiting the amount of damage done to your tissue, you also limit the amount of healing that needs to occur. This is a very important step to heal your hip and leg muscles faster and with less pain!

The deep cooling effect provided by the Back/Hip Freezie Wrap^® reduces tissue damage. Furthermore, because cold compression gently numbs the nerves, the wraps also reduce pain!

The Back/Hip Freezie Wrap^® uses a supercharged cooling gel pack, that chills in the fridge, not in the freezer like ice or other freezer packs, giving you deep cold therapy without the risk of 'cold burns' or cryoburn. The medical-grade wrap delivers cold right where you need it.

Ultrasound Therapy

Once a serious injury (fracture or organ damage) has been ruled out by your doctor, you can begin treating the soft tissue in your hip and leg with ultrasound therapy. Using therapeutic ultrasound over the hip and leg muscles will further reduce inflammation and clean the area of damaged tissue.

Ultrasound therapy is a great therapeutic option to decrease inflammation, pain and soft tissue damage experienced with a hip pointer injury. Therapeutic ultrasonic waves increase tissue elasticity while increasing blood flow to your injured muscles and other tissue in the hip joint that may have suffered damage. This cleans the injured area by flushing away damaged tissue and reducing the inflammation while opening up the blood vessels to begin healing.

Not only does ultrasound aid in minimizing the time required to help, it helps to prevent long term complications. Osteoarthritis, chronic pain, reduced range of motion, and bursitis are some of the more common long term complications that can occur with a hip pointer injury, especially if left untreated. By treating your hip and upper leg with ultrasound, scar tissue becomes softer and your tissue becomes stronger reducing the risk of chronic problems in the future.

During the healing process, scar tissue builds at the location of the tear. In addition, scar tissue can also bind the acetabular labrum, ligaments, tendons and other tissue together within the joint. The inflexible scar tissue limits the movement of these connective tissues that were once elastic and gave your hip its stability and range of motion. As a result, movement of the entire joint is limited making it difficult to rotate your hip and lift your leg. If left untreated, the hip may stiffen making movement difficult and in some cases, impossible. At the very least, scar tissue leaves your hip joint weaker, leaving your hip at greater risk of further injury.

Fortunately, you can treat your hip tendons, muscles, ligaments, and labrum with MendMeShop^® Ultrasound to soften scar tissue and improve the motion and flexibility in your hip. Ultrasound can also be used to administer therapeutic medicines into the body. This is a process known as phonophoresis. Ultrasound with phonophoresis is rapidly becoming more popular than ultrasound therapy alone.

MendMeShop^® ultrasound therapy with phonophoresis is safe, convenient, and easy and requires 10 minutes per treatment. It is based on a form of deep tissue therapy, which is generated through high frequency sound waves (that we can not hear). These waves send micro vibrations into your hip and carry medicated molecules within the ultrasound gel deep into your soft tissue to enhance your ultrasound therapy. Ultrasound waves and medicated ultrasound gel penetrate deep to relax your muscles, decrease inflammation and accelerate your recovery rate, so you can return to your daily activities as soon as possible.

Using MendMeShop^® Lavender Infusion Ultrasound Gel during your ultrasound therapy gives you 2 therapies in 1. You get the benefit of the regenerating sound waves from the ultrasound device itself AND the added bonus of the therapeutic ingredients inside the gel being delivered into your hip joint and leg muscles where it is most effective. 1 FREE bottle of MendMeShop^® Lavender Infusion Ultrasound Gel comes with every MendMeShop^® Ultrasound Therapy System and it contains the therapeutic essential oils of natural Bulgarian lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, and menthol.

Please note: Ultrasound therapy is not recommended for use over a fracture or any organs in the pelvis or abdominal region.

Once the inflammation of your hip pointer injury has been reduced, nourishing and strengthening the soft tissue in your hip and your leg muscles is recommended. Using blood flow stimulation therapy will speed your recovery and heal your hip more completely preparing it for strengthening exercises. Talk to your doctor or physical therapist to find out which exercises are appropriate for your situation.

Inferno Wrap^® Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy

Stimulating blood flow is necessary when you have an injury. This is because your regular blood flow is reduced as you rest your hip and from swelling in the area. Reduced blood flow limits your body's ability to heal itself.

By treating your hip joint with BFST^® you can increase your body's blood supply to the hip and increase your body's natural healing power.

An Inferno Wrap^® is the tool you need to treat your sore hip because it speeds healing and relaxes the surrounding muscles. With BFST^®, tissues are safely and gently stimulated. Your body responds with a rapid increase in blood flow to the area, increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to injured tissue cells to promote healing. The Back/Hip Inferno Wrap^® from MendMeShop^® provides effective, non-invasive, non-addictive pain relief and healing with no side effects. And it's so versatile, you can use in on your leg to treat your injured muscles as well.

In addition, the improved blood flow helps reduce the risk of atrophy (muscle weakness and/or deterioration) in your muscles. When you stop moving your leg and hip due to pain, your muscles and other tissue can become weaker and dead cells and toxins in the area can cause further tissue deterioration - this can lead to atrophy in your quadriceps, hamstrings and other leg muscles. By clearing the area of toxins and increasing the amount of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and other tissue, the risk of atrophy is greatly reduced. Keeping your upper leg and hip joint tissue as healthy as possible throughout the healing process will allow you to improve hip strength again once your pain has gone and your hip pointer injury has healed.

With these 3 easy-to-use, pain-free, home therapies from MendMyHip, pain is significantly reduced, tissue heals faster, and there's an incredible improvement in the range of motion of your hip. The more diligent you are with your treatment and rehabilitation, the faster you will see successful results!

We've helped thousands of people treat their painful injuries and conditions to get them back on the road to a pain-free life!

Our customers have tried other common hip treatments, such as cortisone injections, pain killers, physical therapy, NSAIDs, and simply staying off their feet to give their hip the rest it needs, all without lasting results - until they found our incredible therapies! In addition, our customers include physicians, professional athletes, sports trainers and coaches, physical therapists, and nurses. These professionals rely on products from MendMyHip to treat their patients, players, and themselves. Click here to read more about their experience with MendMyHip!

Please be aware that this information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider before using any of our outstanding products to make sure they're right for you and your condition or if you have any questions regarding a medical condition. It is recommended that you see your doctor for a proper diagnosis as there are many injuries and conditions that could be the cause of your pain.

Or email us at service@MendMyHip.com