Hip Joint problems

Our body is simple yet very complex. With all the organs, muscles and bones, the diseases are also many. The hip joint is one of the most important joints of the body. We sit, walk, lie down with the help of this joint. But like any other joint, this joint is also prone to several diseases and that is what we are going to discuss here.

Osteoarthritis

This one is the most common type of the arthritis. Osteoarthritis is also known as the age-related arthritis or the degenerative joint disease. This one is known to develop as the people grow old. Do you feel that there is the presence of joint stiffness in the morning time? Else than that, have you felt the joint stiffness after you sit or stand up for a long time? Have you felt the tenderness in the area of the hip joint? Do you feel the crunching sound when you move? With these, is your ability to move and perform the normal daily activities also slowed down? If yes, then you are going to be a patient of this disease.

The joints of the body have a natural cushioning over them. When the cushioning known as cartilage breaks down, it leaves the joint naked and the bones collide and rub against each other. This rubbing of the bones in the joint leads to the swelling of the joint and brings out the pain. The reason behind getting the disease is unknown but there are some factors like increasing age, being overweight and joint injury which contributes to the disease. With this, the other factors like hereditary defects in cartilage can also be the reason behind the occurrence of the osteoarthritis of the hip joint.

If you are feeling any of the symptoms showing up and the trouble persists for long, then you must definitely show up to a doctor and get the problem diagnosed so that your trouble can be seen sooner and the medication and treatment can be started early.

Impingement

Do you know that you can have this hip impingement for years and still not know? The reason is that the early stages are not painful. Do you feel stiffness in the groin or in the front side of the thigh? Have you lost control over the full range of the motion of your hip joint? If yes, then you have the hip impingement as these are the basic symptoms of the disease. It might happen that when you move hips to the limits, they ache in the beginning. But as the condition progresses, you are going to feel pain in normal activities as the cartilage that cushions the ball and socket joint of the hip joint starts t break down and leads to osteoarthritis.

Now, the thing that you must know is what actually hip impingement is? The hip joint is where the thigh bone meets the pelvis and it is known as ball and socket joint as the ball liken top of the thigh bone fits into the cup like area present within the pelvis. The ball part normally glides within the socket part smoothly but if there is a problem that comes up as the socket or ball rim starts to hinder the smooth movement, the condition is simply called hip impingement. The other name for this is femoro acetabular impingement and this is also known as the early hip osteoarthritis.

The hip impingement is of two types and they are Cam Impingement (a deformity of the ball present at the top of the femur) and Pincer Impingement (a deformity of the socket where the ball of the femur fits). Both of the types or any one of these can cause the disease but there are other hip conditions of childhood that can also cause impingement like Legg-Calve-Perther disease (the ball part doesn’t get the enough supply of blood causing the death of the bone), slipped capital femoral epiphysis (the ball part of the thigh bone separates from the upper growing end of the bone) and coxa vara (the condition in which the ball and the thigh bone doesn’t grow at the same pace and eventually leads to the hip joint deformity).

Avascular Necrosis

Do you know that as many as 20,000 people develop this disease and mostly are between 20 to 50 years old. See, the disease is not like it will show up anyhow. Avascular necrosis can be caused because of

• The fracture or the dislocation of the femur: It affects the supply of blood to the bone which simply leads to the trauma-related avascular necrosis.
• The chronic use of corticosteroids: If someone is into inflammation-fighting drugs since long, they are going to develop non-traumatic avascular necrosis. The drugs actually interfere with the ability of the body in breaking down fatty substances and these, in turn, gets collected in the blood vessels making them narrow and reducing the blood flow to the bone.
• Excessive use of alcohol: This one is also like the corticosteroids as they also decrease the blood flow to the bone by narrowing the blood vessels.

Now, the thing you must want to know is what exactly avascular necrosis is. So, the disease avascular necrosis is a condition in which the bone has no blood supply. It is also known by the name of oseteonecrosis, ischemic bone necrosis or aseptic necrosis. The stoppage of blood to the bone can make the bone dead. This disease occurs commonly in hip joint.

Now, the thing that will help you in recognizing the disease is the symptoms. But the disease shows no symptoms in the early stages but with the progression of the disease, it gets really painful. The pain can be felt by putting pressure on the affected limb but it becomes constant with time. If the disease is not diagnosed and continues, the bones finally collapse and the pain can be experienced which directly interferes with the joint usage. You simply rush to a doctor, if you experience pain because the trouble can get worse with time.

Developmental Dysplasia Of Hip (Ddh)

As told earlier, the hip joint is one of the most important joints of the body as it supports most of the weight of the body and allows the movement of the upper leg. So, if you get a problem like hip dysplasia, it can affect your life in a very bad way. The biggest ball and socket joint of the body is the hip joint and the hips are normal as the ball part of the femur easily glides and moves into the socket of the pelvis. But if you or someone you know has the problem hip dysplasia, the socket part doesn’t cover the ball part completely and that can simply lead to the dislocation of the hip joint. Plus, the hip joint wears away faster than it has to in normal ones. Many of the people having the disease are born with it.

See, the symptoms of the disease hip dysplasia depends of the age.

• Sometimes, there are babies who have one leg shorter than the other and kids might have their one hip which is less flexible than the other one and they limp usually when start walking.
• In a teenager, the sign is that they will have a limp or hip pain. There can also be a clicking sound in the hip joint.
• The common symptom for all the patients of hip dysplasia is that they experience pain while doing physical activities and it is usually in front of the groin. They can also have discomfort in the hip side or back side of hip. The pain starts occasionally first and then become intense and frequent with time.
• In severe hip dysplasia, mild limp can be caused by the pain and a permanent bone deformity can also be caused and the flexibility of the hip joint can be limited.

See, the diseases discussed above are not casual and must not be taken casually as they affect the hip joint. If you feel any of the symptoms showing up, simply rush to a doctor because more time you take, worse the disease will get and it can leave the hip joint in bad manner.