"How to Determine the Cause of Your Hip Pain: Key Signs and Diagnosis"

 

When people have pain in their hip region, most don’t investigate it right away. A lot of them tolerate the pain, especially if it sustains only for an hour or so. Only when the hip pain crosses the limit, they decide to consult a doctor. By that time, the condition might deteriorate where treatments don’t work due to delay. Physicians ultimately will recommend the patient for surgery due to failure in other conventional treatment methods.

‘Earlier the diagnosis, earlier the treatment’ – this should be everyone’s motto.

Hence, this blog article aims to present the symptoms of varied types of common hip-related problems and raise awareness of potential hip pain conditions. So you can get the treatment well in advance.

Anatomy of the hip region

The hip is a weight-bearing region made up of a ball-and-socket joint. The upper part of the thighbone is the ball region. Similarly, the portion of the pelvic bone is the socket region.

Articular cartilage is found beneath this ball-and-socket joint. It is the covering part of the bones which prevents them from rubbing against each other.

The hip joint stabilises the shape of the hip portion and helps to move the hip easily without creating any problem.

What if there occurs an injury or degeneration in the hip?

Due to overuse of the hip region, it is prone to injury and degeneration. Hence, your hip may undergo the following 8 common hip issues as listed below:

• Hip osteoarthritis
• Hip osteonecrosis
• Bursitis
• Hip tendinitis
• Hip labrum tear
• Snapping hip syndrome
• Hip flexor strain
• Hip flexor injury

You will experience symptoms such as hip pain, stiffness, tenderness, swelling, and limited range of motion leading to difficulty while walking.

Although all these problems cause severe pain in your hip, there are few differences in pain. So, let us go through them.

Hip osteoarthritis

As you grow older, the cartilage portion of the hip joint wears away. Hence, the joint parts will rub against each other causing hip pain. It is called degenerative arthritis or wear and tear arthritis.

In this condition, you get pain in front of the groin that may travel into the thigh portion. At times, you get pain at the side of the hip, back of the thigh or buttocks.

This pain will aggravate while getting up from a seated position, getting in or out of the car, bending to put on shoes, or doing vigorous activities. Hip pain will shoot up while standing, jogging, and walking.

Read More:!!!

Jumpstart Hip Bursitis Recovery with Regenerative Therapy!

 

Have you been treating your hip pain with NSAIDs and steroids for a long time? You might have got only short-term relief with recurrent flare-ups. Continuous use of cortisone steroid injections can increase the rate of degeneration and cause even lethal complications [1]. Moreover, worsening of symptoms, reduction of native healing stem cells in joints, and tendon ruptures have also been reported [2].Why not opt for therapies that help you to regenerate rather than degenerating the hip joint area?

What is hip bursitis?

Bursae is a small fluid-filled sac that cushion and lubricate the bones, tendons, and muscles around your joints to help in smooth movement with reduced friction. Hip bursae are located between the hip bone and glutei muscle attachments. Hip bursitis is defined as the inflammation of the bursa that affects the hip joint due to its repetitive overuse. Hence, the hip movement becomes restricted and painful.

Hip bursitis causes

Hip bursitis can be caused by incorrect posture, muscle weakness, direct hip injury, bone spurs in the hip, uneven leg lengths, irritation due to rubbing of hip muscles/tendons with bursa, spine problems like scoliosis, diseases including gout, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, thyroid disorder, etc., and hip replacement/surgery.

Know the hip bursitis symptoms

A sharp pain followed by a dull aching pain is the primary hip bursitis symptom which will slowly migrate to other regions such as buttock, thigh and legs. You will feel hip pain while performing the following activities:

• Walking or running
• Climbing stairs
• Lifting the leg up to the side
• Sitting for a prolonged time
• Sitting with crossed legs
• Getting up from sitting posture
• Lying on the affected hip

Other hip bursitis symptoms include swelling, tenderness, warmth around the affected area, and the intermittent redness of the skin around inflamed bursae.

Is hip bursitis diagnosis right or wrong?

People visit the clinic for hip bursitis treatment. But do they really have bursitis? Bursitis causes intolerable pain, where it is impossible to touch the skin over the inflamed hip area. But if the affected part can be palpated by putting extra pressure, the patient may not have bursitis. At times, tendonitis (inflammation of tendons) and tendinopathy (degenerated tendon) are often misdiagnosed as bursitis. A research study revealed that patients with trochanteric pain often had bursitis. Similarly, most of the patients with bursitis had tendinopathy [3]. Hence it is mandatory to check whether the diagnosis is right or wrong.

Conventional hip bursitis treatments:

• Initial treatment of patients with hip bursitis may include rest, activity modification, and physical therapy.
• Walking sticks or crutches were used to help in mobility. A physical therapist may recommend hip-strengthening exercises to improve flexibility.
• Ice pack application for 3-4 times per day can also help reduce the swelling, inflammation, and pain.
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) medications function as a painkiller.
• Injection of one or two doses of corticosteroids with an interval of 4-6 months can reduce pain and inflammation. But still, many patients continue to have pain and functional limitations. In a research study, 33% of patients required two corticosteroid injections to improve the symptoms, while some had even five injections [4].
• Hip bursitis surgery options include hip arthroscopy, where the bursa is removed through an incision in the hip region. Though surgery is an option, it is recommended only when there is no improvement with non-surgical treatments.

 Read More: