Torn Hamstring

Injured playing baseball (non-contact injury) nine days ago. Hamstring is swollen / painful / rotating bruising, with related pain in the knee and glute. Yesterday’s MRI reading just came in:

FINDINGS:
Complete tear of the mid semimembranosus tendon. The tear is located approximately 10 cm inferior to the ischial tuberosity. Retraction of the distal tendon with approximately 7 to 7.5 cm gap between the torn tendon segments. Moderate ill-defined fluid and hemorrhage in the fascial plane. Small amount of hemorrhage and edema around the adjacent sciatic nerve… Associated ill-defined T2 hyperintense interstitial edema and hemorrhage in the distal semimembranosus muscle belly."
The biceps femoris/semitendinosus are normally intact.
Signal intensity of the visualized femur is normal. The anterior compartment musculature of the right thigh is normal.
IMPRESSION:
1. Complete rupture of the mid semimembranosus tendon with moderate retraction.

2. Associated strain of the semimembranosus muscle belly.

I am meeting with an orthopedist in two days to review. While I’ve been cautious thus far, I’m self-aware enough to acknowledge my own tendency to push myself faster than he’ll likely recommend (and am balancing that against the bias that surgeons are more likely to recommend surgery). Trying to gather what questions / perspective I should go in with, as well as whether I should be doing anything but RICE.

(I acknowledge none of this is official medical advice.)

Hi there,

This article covers a lot of what you’d be interested in knowing/asking about in this context, so I’d start here: Training With Hip Pain Part III | Barbell Medicine

Once you have your consultation, if you are interested in a second opinion on your situation, our rehab team would be happy to help.

Thanks Austin. Just (re)read the article, and will consider a consultation with the team as well. I am familiar with (and resonate with) BBM’s overall approach to injuries, and have found that information valuable. The area I feel the most ‘in the dark’ is the fact that this includes a tendon rupture, rather than simply a muscle injury, as I’m not sure how that changes the calculus for something like surgical interventions (vs. leveraging Nordics, for example, as described in the article).

I’m glad you’ve found our content useful. I agree that your situation is a bit more complex; unfortunately I do not feel comfortable giving individualized advice on this particular situation via the forum. A consultation would be more appropriate for this.