Hip pain affects people of all ages and activity levels. In most cases, conservative treatments like anti-inflammatory medication, steroid injections and physical therapy are enough to alleviate the pain.
Correct diagnosis is crucial to attaining the best treatment. Our orthopedic and pain management specialists can determine the root cause of your hip problems during a comprehensive evaluation.
If you have hip pain that has not responded to rest, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, activity modification and physical therapy, an orthopedic surgeon may be able to help. They can perform a complete evaluation of your hip and provide you with a customized treatment plan.
The expert Los Angeles Hip Surgeon will discuss your pain, health history and perform a thorough examination of your hip. They can also order X-rays, CT scan or MRI to collect more information about your hip.
They can treat hip joint problems with minimally invasive surgery using arthroscopic techniques. In this procedure, the hip is placed into gentle traction to separate the femoral head from the hip socket so the physician can access the joint with small incisions.
If hip pain doesn’t respond to rest, over-the-counter medication or at-home hot-and-cold therapy, our orthopedic specialists may recommend surgery. The most common procedure is called arthroscopy. It is a minimally invasive procedure.
The surgeon makes small poke-hole incisions to access the joint and insert an arthroscope — a flexible surgical tool that contains a camera, light and tools for treatment. The doctor uses the lighted camera to evaluate the tissue and joints inside the hip.
He can remove torn cartilage, repair soft tissue damage, reshape non-spherical femoral heads or acetabular over-coverage, and correct other joint conditions such as femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) or labral tears. This reduces pain and speeds up healing so that patients can return to their normal activities much sooner. This approach often eliminates the need for replacement hip surgery.
Hip pain is often caused by damage to bone or soft tissue in the hip joint. Minimally invasive corrective surgery can restore hip function by repositioning the bone and tissue.
However, hip replacement surgery is an invasive procedure that is not recommended until other alternative treatments fail. The orthopedic surgeon will recommend hip replacement only if the hip is too painful to allow for normal movement.
Many patients have hip arthritis that does not require surgery. Hip arthritis develops after an injury or from ligament weakness and wears down the cartilage that allows hip bones to move smoothly within the hip joint. Injections using mesenchymal stem cells or platelet rich plasma can alleviate hip pain without destroying the cartilage. These injections stimulate regeneration of healthy cartilage and strengthen the surrounding tissue.
Hip injections involve injecting a combination of numbing medicine and cortisone directly into the hip joint. The numbing medicine provides immediate pain relief and can help confirm whether the hip joint is the source of the pain. The cortisone reduces inflammation in the joint and may offer long-term pain relief.
The doctor sterilizes the area where the injection will be administered, and then numbs it with an anesthetic. Then, using real-time X-ray guidance (fluoroscopy), the doctor inserts a needle into the hip joint.
Hip injections can relieve pain caused by trochanteric bursitis, a condition in which the fluid in the hip bursa becomes inflamed. This condition typically results from repetitive movement or wearing tight shoes. Physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medication, and temporarily changing your activities usually provide relief from this type of hip pain.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are a promising treatment for hip pain. This procedure involves drawing blood and separating the platelets—tiny blood cells that promote blood clotting and healing—from the rest of the blood. The doctor then injects the concentrated platelets into the injured site.
A topical numbing medication may be applied before the PRP injection. The healthcare staff will draw a small sample of your blood, usually less than two ounces. The platelets will then be separated from the other components of your blood in a centrifuge, a device that spins the blood quickly.
The doctor will then inject the separated platelets into the injured area with ultrasound guidance. This typically takes around 30 minutes. The doctor can also use this treatment for other areas of the body, such as knee osteoarthritis and achilles tendinitis.