What is hip arthritis?
Hip arthritis can refer to any form of arthritis within your hip joint, including osteoarthritis, post-traumatic arthritis, and other forms of the disease. By far, the most common kind of hip arthritis is osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis of the hip is most often an age-related condition that usually starts after age 50 and worsens over the years. With osteoarthritis, the cartilage — the protective material that covers the bones in your hip joint — breaks down.
Eventually, this can lead to bone rubbing and grinding, along with serious hip pain. Osteoarthritis can cause severe discomfort and disability if untreated.
What are the symptoms of hip arthritis?
Hip arthritis can cause:
- Hip pain
- Hip joint stiffness
- Limited hip range of motion
- Creaking sensation in your hip
- Hip joint sticking or locking up
- Groin area pain
- Outer thigh pain
- Difficulty walking or limping
Hip arthritis often flares up with heavy physical activity and often hurts with the first steps after sitting for a period of time, "start-up pain." Usually, osteoarthritis affects one hip at a time.
When do I need treatment for hip arthritis?
If you have intrusive symptoms and you suspect hip arthritis, it’s time to call Total Joint Specialists to discuss your treatment options. Some signs that it’s time to get help for hip arthritis include if:
- You can’t do routine tasks
- Hip pain interrupts your sleep
- Hip pain makes you limp
- Hip pain keeps you from your normal activities
If your hip pain affects your life in any notable way, that problem is very likely to worsen if you don’t seek treatment. Don’t wait until you’re completely disabled to contact the practice.
How is hip arthritis treated?
The surgeons at Total Joint Specialists specialize in hip osteoarthritis as well as other types of damaging hip arthritis. They will often use conservative protocols, including physical therapy and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to start.
On occasion, corticosteroid injections may help for an average of three months. But, when you have osteoarthritis, repeated steroid injections can cause disease progression. Thus, you can only have a limited number of total injections.
If you have chronic severe hip arthritis symptoms, hip replacement surgery can be the ideal way to restore your joint. In hip replacement surgery, your surgeon expertly removes the damaged bone to replace it with highly durable prosthetic surfaces.
They use minimally invasive techniques whenever possible to produce consistently excellent implant fits and overall outcomes.
The specialists at Total Joint Specialists are the leading joint replacement experts in the state. Learn more about how they can help with hip arthritis by calling the nearest office or clicking the provided link now.
