The hip joint is often the seat of chronic pain and discomfort, which could be either due to illness or trauma. Hip pain relief is desperately sought for by those folks who are in unbearable agony due to the nagging pain. While hip pain is often only experienced by the elderly, there are reasons why people of all ages may experience this. The following is a list of common causes as well as an overview of the treatments prescribed to relieve the pain. If the pain you are feeling is intense be sure to have a doctor examine you.

Common Causes of Hip Pain

• Infections of the hip.
• Chronic arthritic inflammations of the hip leading to hip bursitis and hip osteoarthritis
• Trauma to the hip caused by accidents, falls, blows etc
• Hip fracture
• Referred pain from other parts of the body, for instance from Kidneys or as a concomitant of back pain in slip disc

Hip pain relief measures are classified in to 3 main categories as listed below:

1) Medications for Hip Pain Relief

Anti-inflammatory medications like analgesics and NSAIDs may be prescribed for hip pain relief. But more often than not; the pain is quite severe and may not respond to these medications alone. Corticosteroid in the form of hip joint injection may be recommended in such cases with persistent pain.

If the hip pain is due to hip osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, then certain special medications known as (Disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs) DMARD may be prescribed.

2) Physical therapy for hip pain relief

Physical therapy is done only under strict guidance and supervision of a professional and skilled physiotherapist. The therapist will suggest certain exercises after proper and detailed evaluation of your pain, flexibility of the hip joint, range of motion of the hip joint, strength of the joint and gait. The intensity and length of the physical therapy will be determined only after complete evaluation of your problem.

3) Hip Replacement surgery

Hip replacement surgery is the last resort and only used when hip pain relief is not achieved by other non-surgical methods. Hip replacement may be done either partially or totally, depending upon the extent of damage to the hip joint and the surrounding tissues. This procedure involves replacing damaged bone of the hip joint with a metallic prosthesis.

Other Unconventional Hip Pain Relief Measures

• While the 3 major types of hip pain relief have been described above, there are some additional measures that could be employed to achieve relief from hip pain.
• Alternative therapies like acupressure, acupuncture, homeopathy, massage therapy, Yoga therapy and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have all been found to provide immense relief and benefit in hip pain.
• These measures could either be tried singly or in combination with other conventional methods of treatment; as a complementary measure to accelerate the hip pain relief.
• These alternative measures have also been found to benefit arthritic troubles like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis; which are the commonest cause for hip joint damage and pain.

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