The Hip Joint

The hip is the joint which connects the leg to the body. As such it is subject to a great deal of force which can lead to the hip wearing out or getting damaged. As well as the actual hip joint itself there are a lot of other structures around the hip such as muscles, tendons, nerves and soft tissues which are all at risk of injury or wear and tear. The main symptom that injury or wear and tear causes around the hip is pain.

Hip Arthritis

The most common cause of hip pain is hip arthritis. There are many different types of arthritis but they all result in wearing out the smooth cartilage.
When the cartilage wears out you get bone rubbing on bone which causes pain and friction which means that the hip doesn’t move properly.

Hip replacement

When simple treatments to get rid of hip arthritis pain such as pain killers, weight loss and activity modification have failed it’s time to consider hip replacement. This operation has transformed millions of lives and is consistently rated as one of the most effective and useful things of all medical treatments.

Hip replacement involves removal of the ball at the top of the thigh bone and clearing out the socket that the ball goes in to. Replacement parts are fitted to the bones and joined together. There are different ways of fitting the replacement parts to the bones. Mr Murray chooses which type of fixation method and which types of implant materials to use based on individual patient characteristics and known long term outcomes of different techniques and implants.

Other causes of hip pain

Femoroacetabular impingement is a condition in which there is a mismatch in the shape of the ball and socket of the hip joint. This usually affects s fairly young people and gives pain at the extremes of movement. A special type of MRI scan is used to confirm the diagnosis.

Snapping Fascia Lata is a condition which usually affects teenage girls. They feel that the hip is dislocating but it isn’t. When Mr Murray diagnoses this condition he reassures patients and their parents and advises special stretches which are all that is needed.

Trochanteric bursitis is a condition which affects a lot of adults. Pain is felt at the side of the hip over the prominent bone. If Mr Murray rules out other causes he will advise the best ways to treat this type of pain without needing to operate.

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Kings Park Hospital, Polmaise Road, Stirling FK7 9PU