Pain in the hip possibly as a consequence of a fall?

Dear Ask The Doctor: I had left iliac crest bone graft in October 2000. Six weeks after surgery I had a severe pain in hip, down leg and I fell down stairs. Sought treatment for year after fall for pain, no xray, no MRI done. Several years later diagnosed by department of veterans affairs as a left hip strain. Fast forward to now, left hip pain worse than ever, unable to exercise, golf, walk long distance. Been told now that I have chronic trochanteric bursitis and illio tibial band syndrome of the hip and knee, small tear in labrum and fai syndrome of hip. How likely are all of these directly attributable to the fall on the left hip that was diagnosed as a strain. I have suffered ten years with increasing pain, wrong diagnosis, wrong physical therapies and will be having surgery finally to correct damage.

Dear Todd: First of all, your clinical evaluation should be complemented with imaging studies (MRI) in order to be sure about the diagnosis and rule out other possible causes of your pain. The chronic trochanteric bursitis may or may not be related to the past fall, meaning Trochanteric bursitis is characterized by painful inflammation of the bursa located just superficial to the greater trochanter of the femur. Typically lateral hip pain, although the hip joint itself is not involved. The pain may radiate down the lateral aspect of the thigh to the knee. More commonly, repetitive (cumulative) trauma is involved. Such trauma is caused by the repetitive contracture of the gluteus medius during running or walking. Conditions that predispose patients to trochanteric bursitis include underlying lower leg gait and back or sacroiliac disturbances. But at times, the bursitis develops spontaneously without apparent precipitating factors.