Hip Symptoms
Problems with the hip joint are common. The hip is a ball and socket joint that is surrounded by thick layers of large muscles. Symptoms can arise from any of the separate elements of the hip joint, including the bones, the cartilage, the ligaments, the tendons or the muscles.
The most common hip symptoms are:-
Pain
The brain is not used to getting pain impulses from the hip joint, and therefore unlike the fingertips, for example, it is difficult to accurately localise hip pain. The nerve fibres from the hip joint run into three main leg nerves - the femoral nerve, the sciatic nerve and the obturator nerve. This means that pain arising from the hip joint can often actually be felt either in the groin, the thigh or even the knee.
Groin pain normally signifies that the pain is coming from damage to the socket (acetabulum) of the hip, or from damage to the rim of cartilage surrounding the edge of the socket (the acetabular labrum).
Pain from the ball part of the hip (the head) or from the top of the thigh bone (the femur) is often felt in the front of the thigh, or it may sometimes even radiate down as far as the front of the knee.
Pain around the outer side of the hip, near where you put your hand into a trouser pocket, is often caused by inflammation of a little sac of fluid that sits between the bone and the skin - a condition called trochanteric bursitis.
Stiffness
If the hip joint develops wear and tear (degeneration or arthritis), the layer of tissue around the hip joint that keeps the fluid inside the joint, called the capsule, becomes thick and tight. Also, with wear and tear the hip bones develop extra spurs of bone, called osteophytes. One of the consequences of this is that the hip joint stiffens up.
Stiffness in the hip joint will be felt as a restriction in the ability to bend the knee up towards the chest and to then rotate the leg. In particular, this makes it difficult to reach your foot, for example to cut your toes or to put on socks.
Limping
Patients with hip problems often limp. This can be due to a number of possible reasons (or a combination of these):-
- Stiffness in the joint reduces movement and therefore causes a limp.
- Many patients limp simply because the hip is painful.
- With a damaged hip joint the surrounding muscles can become weak.
- In more severe arthritis the layer of cartilage covering the bones of the ball and socket part of the hip joint wears away, and then the bone itself can begin to erode away. This can make the leg slightly shorter, which can be another cause for a limp.
Catching sensations
If there are loose or torn bits of cartilage within a hip joint then these can cause painful clicking or catching sensations.
Locking or giving way
Again, loose or torn bits of cartilage in a hip joint can cause the joint to lock up or they may cause the joint to give way suddenly.
Article written by
Mr Ian McDermott
Consultant Hip Surgeon and Knee Surgeon, London & Northwood
Last updated 13/01/10
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