Editorial: is the hip really a stable joint?

Excerpt

The anatomically “normal” hip joint is an inherently stable joint due to the congruency of the femoral head and acetabulum as well as the capsular–ligamentous–muscular envelope that surrounds the hip [8]. This understanding was the purported theory or conventional thought about hip stability; it follows that instability events would be rare in the absence of substantial trauma [1]. Improved knowledge in terms of hip biomechanics has resulted in an improved understanding of conditions such as femoroacetabular impingement [6, 9]. Moreover, instability of the hip and the degrees to which it occurs is becoming increasingly evident. Cadaveric and clinical studies have demonstrated that the femoral head is not a true sphere, and that there is motion (translational and rotational) between the femoral head and acetabulum in its native state [3, 4, 12]. …