The honest version
Hip arthroscopy treats hip impingement and labral tears through two or three small incisions, in hips that still have healthy cartilage. It is not a hip replacement, and it won't help an arthritic hip. Your X-rays, not your age, decide which hip you have.
What's actually wrong
Most labral tears don't come from one bad step. They come from bone shape: a bump on the ball or an over-deep rim on the socket that pinches the labrum every time the hip flexes. Repair the labrum without fixing the bone and it tears again. So the operation is two things at once — reshape the bone, repair the rim — and the surgeon reads your X-rays before anyone talks about your MRI.
Your options, straight
- Therapy first, for almost everyone. Hip and core strengthening, movement retraining, avoiding the deep-flexion positions that pinch. Many people get enough relief to stop here. Our rehab team is in the same building.
- Arthroscopy when therapy fails and the cartilage is healthy. Keyhole bone reshaping and labral repair, outpatient, home the same day.
- Replacement when it's really arthritis. An honest handoff down the hall to Dr. Flowers or Dr. Gheewala, on the same chart. Hip replacement →
Why Dr. Chin for this
- He does what few here do. Hip arthroscopy is a small, technically demanding field, and outcomes track surgeon experience. His practice is built on arthroscopy: shoulder, hip, and knee.
- Fellowship-trained in sports medicine, FAANA. Fellow of the Arthroscopy Association of North America; member of the International Society for Hip Arthroscopy.
- A scientist's method. MD and PhD. He'll show you the bone shape on your own imaging and tell you plainly if your hip isn't a candidate.
Who performs hip arthroscopy at Sterling Ridge
Board-certified, fellowship-trained in sports medicine, and in the office every week — read his story, then decide.
Paul C. Chin, MD, PhD, FAAOS, FAANAPatients also ask
Is hip arthroscopy better than physical therapy for hip impingement?
For the right patient, yes. In the UK FASHIoN trial, 348 patients with impingement were randomized to arthroscopy or best conservative care; at one year the arthroscopy group had improved 6.8 points more on the iHOT-33 hip score, a clinically meaningful difference (Griffin et al., 2018). Therapy is still the first step, and for many people it is enough.
Who is a candidate for hip arthroscopy?
Active people, usually teens through their 40s, with a deep groin pinch on sitting, squatting, or pivoting, an MRI showing a labral tear or impingement, and X-rays showing little or no arthritis. Once the cartilage is significantly worn, arthroscopy stops working and hip replacement becomes the honest answer.
Is my pain from my hip or my back?
Hip joint pain is usually felt in the groin or deep in the front of the hip and worsens with sitting, squatting, or rotating the leg. Pain in the buttock or down the back of the leg more often comes from the spine. Plenty of people have both. An exam sorts it out in one visit, and when the joint is the question, a numbing injection into the hip gives a clear answer. More on telling the two apart →
Does surgeon experience matter for hip arthroscopy?
More than for most procedures. A New York State study of 8,267 hip arthroscopies found patients of higher-volume surgeons had less than half the risk of re-operation (hazard ratio 0.42; Degen et al., 2017). It is a small field, and few surgeons in the Houston area perform it regularly.
What is recovery like?
Same-day surgery at the Sterling Ridge / Woodforest Ambulatory Surgical Center. Crutches for about two weeks, therapy within days, desk work in one to two weeks, running around three months, and cutting or contact sports at four to six months, cleared by strength and movement testing rather than a calendar date. Rehab is with the Sterling Ridge therapy team, on the same chart as your surgeon.
Does Dr. Chin also do hip replacement?
No. Dr. Chin's hip practice is arthroscopic. If your X-rays show the arthritis has gone past what arthroscopy can help, you'll see Dr. Brian Flowers or Dr. Rohan Gheewala, Sterling Ridge's hip replacement surgeons, in the same practice.
Medically reviewed by Keith W.V. Johnson, MD, FAAOS · Updated October 21, 2026