Osteoarthritis

What is hip arthritis?

Hip arthritis affects the cartilage that lines the bone surfaces of the joint. The cartilage breaks down and wears away causing inflammation and pain which is felt in your groin. Hip osteoarthritis usually happens gradually over time.

What causes hip arthritis?

• Being overweight
• Age
• Previous joint injury
• Muscle weakness
• Stresses on the joints from certain jobs and playing sports
• Poor biomechanics
• Malformed joints or a genetic defect in your joint cartilage.

Signs and symptoms

• Hip joint pain or tenderness that can be constant. Sharper pains can be felt in your groin, and sometimes an ache in the front of the thigh
• Hip stiffness, particularly early morning stiffness
• Hip joint movement can be limited
• Weak hip muscles, especially during sit to stand, squatting and stair climbing
• Hip joint swelling or deformity can be hard to detect because of the location of the hip joint.

Treatment

• Begin flexibility and strengthening exercises, this has shown to reduce the need for a hip replacement and reduce the length of rehab if hip replacement is required
• Reduce pain
• Release tight muscles around hip
• Address contributing factors
• Gait re-training
• Activity modification
• Hip replacement surgery.