Physical Therapy for Hip & Thigh Pain

Summary

Common Hip & Thigh Injuries

Bursitis

Bursitis (bur-SY-tis) is a painful condition that affects the small fluid-filled pads — called bursae (bur-SEE) — that act as cushions among your bones and the tendons and muscles near your joints. The most common locations for bursitis are in the shoulder, elbow and hip. But you can also have bursitis by your knee, heel and the base of your big toe. Bursitis often occurs near joints that perform frequent repetitive motion.

Hip Replacement Surgery

Hip replacement surgery, also called total hip arthroplasty, involves removing a diseased hip joint and replacing it with an artificial joint, called a prosthesis. Hip prostheses consist of a ball component, made of metal or ceramic, and a socket, which has an insert or liner made of plastic, ceramic or metal. The implants used in hip replacement are biocompatible - meaning they're designed to be accepted by your body - and they're made to resist corrosion, degradation and wear.

Hip & Thigh Pain physical therapy exercise

Bursitis symptoms:

Dull ache in the area around your hip (primarily over the greater trochanter, which is the portion of your thighbone, or femur, that protrudes where the joint meets the hip)
Stiffness in the joint
Increased pain with movement
Tenderness
Unlike bursitis in other areas of the body, there is no visible swelling or redness of the skin. This is because the bursae are located beneath some of the bulkiest muscles in the body.

Conditions that can damage the hip joint, sometimes necessitating hip replacement surgery, include:

Osteoarthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Broken hip
Bone tumor
Osteonecrosis, which occurs when there is inadequate blood supply to the ball portion of the hip joint