Hip

Adductor-related groin pain

Mechanism

Overload of the adductors, usually at their attachment on the pubis, in sports with much cutting, turning and kicking. Adductor longus is by far the most often involved.

Recognition

The Doha agreement asks you to name the complaint after the structure that hurts on palpation and on resistance. For the adductors that means tenderness at the attachment together with a positive squeeze test.

Course

Groin pain often has more than one source at once: adductors, iliopsoas, abdominal wall, symphysis and hip. The agreement therefore explicitly allows naming several categories alongside each other.

Structures

• Adductor longus
• Adductor brevis
• Gracilis
• Pectineus

Joints involved

• Hip joint
• Pubic symphysis

Clinical tests

• Adductor squeeze test
• Single adductor test

Sources

• Weir A, Brukner P, Delahunt E, Ekstrand J, Griffin D, Khan KM e.a.. Doha agreement meeting on terminology and definitions in groin pain in athletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine 49(12):768-774. 2015