Hip Pain

If you’re thankful for an active lifestyle, then you’re thankful for your hips! The hip is a very important joint that connects the pelvis to the leg, and is responsible for our ability to run, jump, sit, walk, and more. A healthy hip joint is crucial for mobility so when hip pain is felt, it dramatically decreases our quality of life. While the hip is a very strong joint, trauma or underlying health conditions can decrease its function and lead to pain that is felt both in the hip and the leg. If left untreated, the pain can become chronic and greatly affect a person’s ability to move and perform daily functions. 

The Nevada Advanced Pain Specialists in the Reno, Sparks and Carson City areas are well versed in all conditions that could affect the hip, as well as the best treatment options to help the patient get out of pain and avoid future pain symptoms. 

What is Hip Pain?

Hip pain is any pain or discomfort that you feel in or around the hip joint. A sports injury, arthritis, or anything in between can cause it. Most often when a person experiences hip pain, they also experience leg pain, which makes sense because the hip joint connects the pelvis to the leg. 

The hip joint is where the femur (thigh bone) connects to the pelvis. It is one of the largest joints in the body and is essential for movement, supporting a person’s weight, as well as balance. At the top of the femur is a round ball that fits into a socket in the pelvic bone, called the acetabulum. The ball is able to glide and rotate within the acetabulum with the help of muscles and ligaments. These muscles and ligaments keep the joint from overextending or improperly rotating, which basically helps us to consistently walk, run and jump without injury. There are also bursa, which are fluid-filled sacs, and a synovial lining that help to provide a lubricating fluid, which work together to decrease friction within the bones and provide smooth movement. 

Due to the fact that The hip connects to the leg, and also used together for movement, pain felt in the hip can radiate to other parts of the body. This could include: 

• Buttocks
• Thighs
• Groin
• Lower back
• Back of legs
• Side of legs, often into the knee
• Outside of the hip

Hip pain can range from either a short-term annoyance to a long-term issue that requires medical attention. Where the pain is felt is key to determining what treatment options might be recommended by a healthcare provider. 

If the pain feels close to the surface of the skin, that might mean there is an issue with the muscles, tendons or ligaments. If you feel pain deep inside the joint, that could indicate a problem with the bones or cartilage. Or, If you feel pain deep inside the joint, that means the pain has radiated, and stems from the hip and not the lower back or groin. Some people experience pain when they first wake up because they haven’t moved the joint all night, while others can experience pain later in the day when they have moved the joint all day. While You can treat some hip pain at home, it’s important to seek professional help if the pain persists after a few days, or becomes increasingly worse. 

What Causes Hip Pain?

A person might experience hip and leg pain due to a traumatic event or an underlying health condition. It’s important to partner with a pain management specialist who can accurately diagnose and treat your specific cause of hip pain with the goal to help you enjoy a pain-free and active lifestyle, now and in the future. 

The most common causes of injury-related hip pain include: 

• Injury and trauma: regardless if you’re incredibly active or incredibly sedentary, injury and trauma are the main reasons why a person might experience hip pain, and they don’t discriminate. Any mild or severe damage to the hip can lead to chronic pain, especially if needed treatment and rehabilitative methods aren’t utilized as quickly as possible or to the fullest extent. The most common incidences of injury or trauma that lead to hip pain include slips and falls, sports-related accidents, repetitive strain injuries, car accidents, breaking the leg (femur) or dislocating the hip. 
• Bursitis: this occurs when the bursae in the hip joint become irritated and inflamed, causing a burning sensation within the hip joint when They are using it.

The most common causes of health condition-related hip pain include: 

• Osteoarthritis (OA): Also known as degenerative joint disease or degenerative arthritis, osteoarthritis results from the use – and over use – of any joint in the body, especially the hip joint. It causes inflammation in the joint, which leads to pain, swelling and stiffness. It is most often seen in women over the age of 55 years old, those who are obese, or those with a previous history of joint trauma or disease. Osteoarthritis is the most common cause of arthritis in the United States. Additional symptoms of osteoarthritis include the breakdown of the cartilage between the bones of the joint, which leads to not only a popping or clicking sound as the bones rub together, but also a decreased range of motion and increased pain with use. 
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA): RA is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake. This causes inflammation in the affected parts of the body, which are generally the joints. RA is a destructive condition that affects mainly women between the ages of 35 and 50 years old. The main causes of RA aren’t certain, but it’s thought that a combination of viral and bacterial infections and genetic factors can trigger the inflammation. 

Osteonecrosis: also called avascular necrosis (AVN), osteonecrosis is a painful condition that occurs when the blood supply to the head of the femur (thighbone) is disrupted. This leads to necrosis (destruction of normal tissue) of the hip joint, which eventually leads to the collapse and fracture of the femoral head. Not only does this condition cause pain, it could also lead to destruction of the hip joint as well as severe arthritis. 

• Labral tears: A hip labral tear is damage to the cartilage that lines and protects your hip socket. Usually tears occur from sports-related injuries or wear-and-tear. You can treat most of these with at-home therapies, but serious tears could require surgery. 
• Lumbar radiculitis: a disorder where spinal nerves in the lower back become inflamed and irritated, causing pain in the lower back and hip that can also radiate down the back of the thigh into the leg. 

Doctors can treat hip pain with conservative methods, but sometimes surgery might be necessary. The goal of all pain management specialists is to help the patient get out of pain as comfortably as possible, as well as prevent the hip pain from returning in the future. 

What are the Best Treatment Options for Hip Pain?

The first step in determining which treatment option is best for you and your particular type of hip pain is to partner with a healthcare provider who can perform an accurate and thorough diagnosis. In addition to reviewing your medical and health history, the provider will utilize X-rays, CT scans and MRI scans to get a deeper look into the muscles and soft tissue structures of the hip joint. If your provider believes that your hip pain could be due to an underlying health condition, they might also opt for additional testing, including a complete blood count, white blood count, urinalysis, a rheumatoid factor, as well as evaluating the amount of fluid in the joint itself. 

They will also ask questions to help get a better idea of your pain, which include:

• What does the pain feel like? 
• Where are you experiencing pain?
• When do you most often feel pain symptoms?
• Is there anything you do to lessen the pain? 
• Have you had any recent traumatic events?
• Are you currently taking any medications for the pain, and, if so, does it help to provide relief?

Once your pain management specialist has a good idea of why you are experiencing hip pain, the recommended treatment options could include: 

• Lifestyle changes: staying active is essentially for maintaining the proper function of the hip joint. If pain is experienced, RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) are great first steps to take. Combining physical therapy and over-the-counter pain medication can also help to relieve pain and strengthen the muscles around the hip joint, allowing for better support. 
• Steroid joint injections: a popular minimally-invasive option for treating hip pain, especially when caused by arthritis, steroid joint injections provide long-term relief with minimal, if any, side effects. These injections help the patient to experience both immediate pain and a reduction of inflammation. The great benefit of injections is that it allows the patient to utilize other treatment options, such as physical therapy and strengthening exercises, while experiencing less pain.  

Genicular nerve block: an injection of a steroid medication and local anesthetic close to certain nerves in the knee with the goal to provide temporary or, ideally, prolonged pain relief. This helps to relieve chronic knee pain as well as moderate to severe postoperative knee pain by allowing the irritated or inflamed nerves the opportunity to heal. 

• Genicular nerve ablation: is a genicular nerve block proved helpful, a pain management specialist might recommend genicular nerve ablation with the goal to help the patient experience long-term hip pain relief. A great option for patients who have yet to find relief from other treatment options, genicular nerve ablation utilizes radiofrequency energy to heat or burn (“ablate”) the genicular nerves. This keeps the sensory nerves around the knee from sending pain signals to the brain, which leads to pain relief. 
• Hip surgery: usually a last option for healthcare providers, hip surgery can help provide pain relief when all other methods have been exhausted. Hip arthroscopy and hip replacement (arthroplasty) are the most common options for patients who are experiencing chronic hip pain that has created a severe decrease in their ability to stand, sit or walk, as well as their overall quality of life. 

Conservative and minimally-invasive options are a great way to determine the main source of hip pain, provide the patient with pain relief, as well as offer patients a way to hopefully avoid their need for surgery. 

Can Hip Pain be Prevented?

Hip pain due to a traumatic event or an underlying health condition can’t always be prevented. And if they could, everyone would! However, there are some steps you can take to minimize your chances of experiencing an accident that could lead to damage to the hip joint. 

These include: 

• Wearing correct protective equipment during exercise/sports
• Listening to your body and taking a rest of you begin to experience pain while exercising
• Properly resting/cooling down after exercise
• Stretching and warming up prior to working out
• Reducing clutter in your home and keeping pathways clear
• Using the proper tools when performing at-home chores, i.e. using a ladder when needed and not overextending yourself
• Using a cane or walker if you feel you are at risk of falling

Nevada Advanced Pain Specialists

Due to the fact that there are many different reasons why a person might experience acute and/or chronic hip pain, it’s essential to partner with a pain management specialist who can create a personalized treatment plan to treat each patient’s specific cause of pain. If you are suffering with hip pain that is causing you to miss out of life’s experiences, please schedule an appointment today. The Nevada Advanced Pain Specialists in the Reno, Sparks and Carson City areas are able to recommend the best treatment options for you to help you get out of pain and enjoy an active and mobile lifestyle. We look forward to hearing from you!