John Price Hip Injury
written by John Price on 7-10-06
On 8-26-04, I was struck by a car, and in the resulting crash my right hip was fractured.
Current Tour de France contender Floyd Landis has just revealed to the media yesterday that his hip injury from 2003 has resulted in severe pain for the last two years.
Here are two articles about Landis' situation: VeloNews article and New York Times article
As Landis' situation strikes a personal note with me, I decided to post this page with some information & personal x-rays.
The hip consists of three main parts: 1) greater trochanter, which is the bone at the top of the femur, 2) femoral neck, & 3) femoral head (a ball-shaped bone).
The ball-shaped femoral head, like all living tissue, must continuously regenerate itself, or it will die. For the femoral head to live, it is dependent on a good blood supply which comes solely from blood vessels inside the hip bone. Unfortunately, hip fractures like those of Landis and myself fracture the femoral neck, which can damage those vital blood vessels and cause the femoral head to die.
If the femoral head dies, it collapses & the jagged bone then destroys the cartilage between itself & the pelvis. This condition is known as avascular necrosis (AVN). After AVN develops, inflammation results & most patients cannot tolerate the resulting amount of pain, finding even walking very difficult. If AVN is going to happen, it typically develops between six months & four years after the fracture. Apparently, Landis developed AVN within a year after his fracture. It's been almost two years since I had my hip fracture, and I don't have signs of this problem yet. But as is typical with this injury, my hip didn't grow back together the same as before, & therefore doesn't function as comfortably as it did before the injury.
I can currently do just about everything I did before the injury, but with varying levels of pain.
The only treatment is to completely replace the hip joint with a prosthesis, in a procedure known as a Total Hip Replacement (THR). It appears that Landis is considering a THR in an effort to continue his cycling career. Cyclists have certainly been known to continue riding after a THR, but it would be unprecedented for a professional, particulary of Landis' caliber.
For those interested, I've posted below some x-rays of my hip.
