Hip Arthritis

What is hip arthritis?

Hip arthritis is pain and stiffness in your hip joint, related to the soft tissues in the joint. It usually affects the cartilage that cushions your joint, and sometimes the synovial membrane that lubricates it. Arthritis causes inflammation and swelling in these tissues, or it wears them down, or both. If they wear down, your joint won’t have enough padding or lubrication when it moves. Swelling may make the joint stiff.

Are there different types of hip arthritis?

Most of the time, arthritis of the hip is osteoarthritis, which is simple wear and tear on the joint. Less commonly, inflammatory types of arthritis may affect your hips — like rheumatoid arthritis. This is a different type of disease. Typically, inflammatory arthritis will affect many parts of your body at once, not just large joints like your hips. Besides joint pain, these conditions often cause other symptoms, too.

Types of inflammatory arthritis that may affect your hip include:

• Rheumatoid arthritis.
• Spondyloarthritis.
• Juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
• Gout.
• Pseudogout.
• Septic arthritis.
• Lupus-related arthritis.
• Lyme disease-related arthritis.

Osteoarthritis affects the majority of people older than 55, and the hip joint is the second most common joint that osteoarthritis affects. Osteoarthritis of the hip may affect up to 25% of people older than 55. The average age for developing it is 65. Inflammatory types of arthritis are more likely to appear earlier.

What are hip arthritis symptoms?

Arthritis in your hip can cause:

• Pain and stiffness when your hip joint moves.
• Limited range of motion of your hip.
• Difficulty bending at the waist or walking with a limp.
• A grinding or locking sensation when you move your hip.
• A crackling or clicking sound when it moves, called crepitus.

Do you always feel hip arthritis pain in your hip?

You might feel hip arthritis pain in areas surrounding your hip joint. This is called referred pain. Sometimes, it seems to move from one area to another. Many people feel hip arthritis pain in their:

• Groin.
• Thigh.
• Buttocks.
• Knee.

Will I get hip arthritis in both hips?

Osteoarthritis often affects just one hip at a time. Inflammatory arthritis often affects both hips, and other joints besides. If you have osteoarthritis in one hip, you won’t necessarily get it in the other.

What causes hip arthritis?

Osteoarthritis of the hip is mostly the result of normal wear and tear on your hip joint. Our hips bear a lot of weight and stress throughout our lives from normal activities like walking, sitting down and standing up. As we age, it’s common for the cartilage in our hip joints to start to wear down.

But some people do have more wear and tear on their joints than others, and at earlier ages. Lifestyle factors, genetic factors, injuries and diseases may contribute to wearing down the cartilage in your joint sooner. These factors can increase your risk of developing hip arthritis over your lifetime.

Risk factors for developing osteoarthritis of the hip include:

• Increasing age.
• Occupations or sports that put repetitive stress on your hip joint.
• Carrying extra weight on your body when you walk.
• Previous injury or surgery in your hip joint (post-traumatic arthritis).
• Poorly aligned hip joint (hip dysplasia or hip impingement).
• Family history of osteoarthritis.

Inflammatory arthritis isn’t due to wear and tear, although the inflammation can trigger degenerative changes in your joints. Most inflammatory conditions are autoimmune disorders. This means that your immune system malfunctions and attacks your own tissues, triggering inflammation in your joints.

Risk factors for developing inflammatory arthritis include:

• Certain genetic mutations.
• Certain autoimmune antibodies.
• Family or personal history of autoimmune disease.

How is hip arthritis diagnosed?

Diagnosing hip arthritis begins with a survey of your symptoms and a physical examination of your hip joint. A healthcare provider will test your range of motion and your pain levels and observe how you walk. Then, they’ll take X-rays to look for signs of swelling, erosion or other degenerative changes in your joint. If they suspect inflammatory arthritis, you might have blood tests to check for certain indicators.

What’s the best treatment for hip arthritis?

The best treatment for hip arthritis depends on the type and how severe it is. Regardless of the type, healthcare providers usually start by recommending conservative therapies and lifestyle changes.

Conservative treatment for hip arthritis includes:

• Lifestyle modifications to reduce stress on your hip joint, like losing weight, changing jobs or stopping certain activities. You might benefit from using an assistive walking device, like a cane.
• Heat/cold therapy. Both heat and cold can reduce arthritis pain in different ways. Ice packs or gel packs are helpful for reducing inflammation. Heat pads or baths can help relax a stiff joint.
• Physical therapy. Gentle exercise is important for maintaining your joint flexibility and strength, especially when you’re reducing other activities. A physical therapist can help advise you.
• Over-the-counter pain relievers, especially NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), which reduce both inflammation and pain. Topical pain relief products can also be helpful.

As arthritis progresses, your provider might suggest therapeutic injections or medications to slow it down.

Prescription treatments for hip arthritis include:

• Cortisone shots. Steroid injections provide powerful, temporary pain relief and inflammation control directly to your hip. They’re a standard treatment for inflammatory hip arthritis.
• Platelet-rich plasma injections. PRP is an alternative pain relief option and a standard treatment for osteoarthritis. Studies suggest it may help stimulate your cartilage to repair itself.
• Oral corticosteroids. Steroids are anti-inflammatory drugs that work by suppressing your immune system. They’re a standard treatment for inflammatory types of arthritis.
• DMARDS. Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs are a group of medications that treat inflammatory types of arthritis. They reduce inflammation throughout your body.

When other treatments are no longer effective, joint replacement surgery can offer relief.

Surgical treatments for hip arthritis include:

• Hip resurfacing. A surgeon trims damaged bone and cartilage from the ball and socket of your hip joint and replaces the surfaces with a metal cap and shell. These surfaces move against each other without friction or pain.
• Total hip replacement. This procedure replaces your hip socket and the head of your femur bone with a prosthesis, which commonly lasts several decades.

Is hip arthritis curable?

There’s no cure for osteoarthritis, but conservative treatments can help manage the symptoms. When conservative treatments fail, hip replacement surgery can reliably eliminate the symptoms of hip osteoarthritis. Depending on your age, your hip replacement may last the rest of your life. Younger people may need another surgery after several decades, as the prosthesis wears out over time.

What worsens hip arthritis?

Activities to avoid with hip arthritis include:

• High-impact exercise, like running and jumping.
• Lifting or carrying too much weight while standing.
• Repetitive squats, twists or lunges.
• Too much sitting, or crossing your legs while you sit.