Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that is mostly related to the age of the patient, as more people are affected by this disease as they get older. Osteoarthritis causes the cartilage of the joints to break down leading to severe pain, inflammation and stiffness, interfering with the normal usage of the joint.
With the onset of osteoarthritis of the hip, the cartilages of the hip joint completely lose their shock absorbing capacity and lose much of their elasticity and be unable to change its shape when compressed leading to pain and stiffness.
As the ability of the body to rebuild the injured portion of the cartilage reduces with advancing age, the aged people are more suffering from this condition.
How Osteoarthritis Affects the Hip Joint:
When a person has osteoarthritis of the hip, he finds it very difficult to walk and the pain may seem to come from different areas of the hip region making it difficult to get an accurate diagnosis.
Usually pain emanates from the groin, buttocks, knee region or thighs and it is usually severe stabbing and sharp nature accompanied by stiffness in the joint.
The Causes of Osteoarthritis of the Hip
Though the real and exact causes of the osteoarthritis of the hip are unknown, there are many contributing factors like injury to the hip joint, advancing age, overweight and your level of health and fitness.
This may also be caused due to deformity in the hip joint, or due to the genetic factors, or may be caused by over stress of the hip joint.
Osteoarthritis Diagnosis
Though there is no single test to diagnose the osteoarthritis of the hip it can be found out by an X-ray test where the abnormal narrowing of the joint and spurring of the joint margins are seen. This may be accompanied by a physical examination to determine the functioning of the hip and the extent of the joint’s motion loss.
The Symptoms of Osteoarthritis of the Hip
Some of the well known symptoms of osteoarthritis of the hip are
- Stiffness of the hip joint as you get out of bed.
- Stiffness of the hip Joint after you sit for a long time.
- Pain, swelling or tenderness in the hip joint.
- Crunching of bone rubbing against bone.
- Inability to use the hip joint to perform routine activities.
Treatments for osteoarthritis of the hip
The treatments for osteoarthritis of the hip are aimed to improve the mobility of the patient and to help go through his normal lifestyle without losing its quality.
This must be achieved through the restoration of the mobility and proper management of the pain and stiffness of the hip joint.
The main components involved in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the hip are as follows:
- Providing enough rest and joint care.
- Using a walking stick or braces to take the weight off the affected hip.
- Pain control through Nondrug pain relief techniques.
- Reducing body weight by losing excess weight.
- Doing the right forms of exercise.
- Use of pain relief medications like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil).
- Also, Glucosamine is widely used to rebuild damaged hip joints.
- Surgical procedures for correcting the joint deformities.
- Use of alternative therapies.