Dr. Zachary McVicker, MD

On the show

“Instead of being round, it’s more like an oval peg in a round hole.”

Dr. McVicker explained femoroacetabular impingement, the hip problem that often shows up as back or groin pain. He described the two forms, the cam lesion where the ball is misshapen and the pincer lesion where the socket covers too much of it, and said pincer lesions are the harder of the two to treat. He compared the labrum to a gasket that keeps a suction seal and spreads weight across the joint, and said that arthroscopic surgery is minimally invasive and keeps your own hip, along with the balance and proprioception a replacement cannot give back.

Background

• He earned his medical degree at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences and completed his orthopedic surgery training at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
• He completed a sports medicine fellowship at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles, serving as an assistant team physician for teams including the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Dodgers and USC football.
• Since moving to Jupiter he has served as an assistant team physician for the Miami Marlins and the Jupiter Hammerheads and as team physician for Jupiter Christian High School.
• He has a special interest in hip injuries, including femoroacetabular impingement, labral tears, hip dysplasia, and gluteus medius and hamstring injuries, and is trained in hip arthroscopy and cartilage restoration.
• He sees patients at the Paley Institute offices in West Palm Beach and Jupiter.

Watch the episode

Play: What’s Really Causing Your Hip Pain?

Episode 10

What’s Really Causing Your Hip Pain?

Dr. Zach McVicker, MD

Plenty of people arrive certain the problem is their back, and the hip turns out to be driving it. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Zach McVicker explains hip impingement in plain English, the cam and pincer shapes it comes in, why the labrum works like a gasket between two pipes, and why an early arthroscopic repair keeps the hip you were born with.

Watch on YouTube →

• ▶Play clip: “Instead of being round, it’s more like an oval peg in a round hole.”

  “Instead of being round, it’s more like an oval peg in a round hole.”

• ▶Play clip: “The labrum, think of it like a gasket.”

  “The labrum, think of it like a gasket.”

• ▶Play clip: Hip dysplasia “ends up in arthritis 100 percent of the time.”

  Hip dysplasia “ends up in arthritis 100 percent of the time.”

• ▶Play clip: “Nobody can treat this, your career’s over.” Then they went on to play college sports.

  “Nobody can treat this, your career’s over.” Then they went on to play college sports.

• ▶Play clip: Check your belt buckle.

  Check your belt buckle.

• ▶Play clip: Why surgeons wait as long as they can before a hip replacement.

  Why surgeons wait as long as they can before a hip replacement.

Listen

Read the recap: When Back Pain Is Really a Hip: Dr. Zach McVicker on Pain 2 Power