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Hip Pain Causes

• Understanding Hip Pain
  • Causes of Hip Pain
  • Treating Hip Pain
  • Orthopaedic Evaluation
  
  
• Stryker Treatment Options
  
  
• Take Control
  
  
• Real Stories from Hip Replacement Recipients
  
  

Understanding How The Hip Works

The hip is one of the main weight bearing joints in your body and consists of two main parts:

• A ball (femoral head) at the top of your thigh bone (femur).
• A rounded socket (acetabulum) in your pelvis.

The ball (femoral head) on the thigh bone fits into the rounded socket (acetabulum) in the pelvis. Ligaments, which are bands of tissue, connect the ball to the socket and help keep the ball and socket steady. The surfaces of the ball and socket are covered by a smooth, tough material called articular cartilage, which cushions the bones and lets them move easily.

All the rest of the surfaces of the hip joint are covered by a thin, smooth tissue liner called synovial membrane, which makes a small amount of fluid that acts as a lubricant so that the bones in the hip joint will not rub against each other.

Normal hip joint, showing healthy articular cartilage.	Diseased hip joint, showing worn cartilage.	Post-operative hip joint with prosthesis in place.

Causes of Hip Pain

One of the most common causes of chronic hip pain is arthritis. The most common types of arthritis are:

• Osteoarthritis (OA) — sometimes called degenerative arthritis because it is a "wearing out" involving the breakdown of cartilage in the joints. When cartilage wears away, the bones rub against each other, causing pain and stiffness. This usually occurs in people aged 50 years and older, and frequently in individuals with a family history of osteoarthritis.
• Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) — produces chemical changes in the synovium that cause it to become thickened and inflamed. In turn, the synovial fluid destroys cartilage. The end result is cartilage loss, pain, and stiffness. This affects women about 3 times more often than men, and may affect other organs of the body.
• Post-traumatic Arthritis — may develop after an injury to the joint in which the bone and cartilage do not heal properly. The joint is no longer smooth, and these irregularities lead to more wear on the joint surfaces.

Other causes of joint pain include avascular necrosis, which can result when bone is deprived of its normal blood supply (for example, after organ transplantation or long-term cortisone treatment), and deformity or direct injury to the joint.

Joint pain can be made worse when you avoid using a painful joint, weakening the muscles and making the joint more difficult to move.

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