P.K was a 43 year old male with right hip pain. He was referred by a physical therapist colleague after an injury he sustained while training for a 10k race. He was an avid runner and cyclist and although he had done well with strength training in his physical therapy, he still had some tightness and nagging pain in his hip.
Initial Examination
Despite his overall core and leg strength, his physical therapy examination showed deep tightness around the muscles in his pelvis/ pelvic floor, and dense scar tissue from an abdominal surgery years back. Collaboration with a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor was initiated to investigate any other pathology to the hip joint. Working with his referring physical therapist and physician, we worked closely to develop his plan of care.
Treatment
His treatments were 1x/wk for 8 weeks and they included manual therapy techniques to his abdominal scar tissue, pelvis, legs and pelvic floor. Sessions were timed with her appointments with her physician and physical therapist for various simple out-patient procedures (e.g. prolotherapy) and continued specific strength training exercises.
Outcome
After 6 visits, P.K reported zero to very minimal pain in his hip. When he did feel discomfort he could self-treat easily. He was able to train and successfully complete a series of races (5k’s and 10K’s) a few months after discontinuing PT, 2 of which were in fastest times yet.