C-Sign
Advances in hip arthroscopy have spawned an increased interest in the diagnoses and treatment of hip pathology. Certainly, the condition receiving the most interest recently is femoral acetabular impingement. Those patients presenting with this condition are typically younger, describe an insidious onset of symptoms and have radiological images devoid of any arthritic disease early.
Patients with non-arthritic, intra-articular disease of the hip will complain of pain anteriorly or anterior laterally. It has been observed by some that patients will grab the trochanter with the ipsilateral hand in a cupped fashion and say the pain is deep inside. Byrd has described this as the C-Sign. This finding with further positive hip examination for painful log role, impingement maneuver, FABER test, and pain with resistance to straight leg raise should lead one to consider intra-articular pathology of the hip and may warrant further diagnostic work-up.
References
1. Byrd JW. Hip Arthroscopy. J Am Acad Ortho Surg. 2006; 14(7):433-444.
2. Lynch TS, Terry MA, Bedi A, Kelly BT. Hip Arthroscopic Surgery. Am J Sports Med.2013;20(10):1-16.
3. Byrd JW. Operative Hip Arthroscopy. Springer; 2013.
4. Martin, HD, Kelly BT, Leunig M, Phillipon MJ, Clohisy JC Martin RL, Sekija JK Pietrobon R, Mohtadi NG, Sampson TG, Safran MR. Arthroscopy. 2010;26(2):161-172.
Submitted by:
Ricardo J. Rodriguez, MD
Baton Rouge, LA
