Hip pain: What can happen if it is left untreated?

Hip pain can be a complex issue, manifesting in a variety of symptoms and potentially stemming from a range of different sources within the hip joint. Although not all cases of hip pain surgical intervention, accessing the right treatment is essential to ensure a proper resolution of your symptoms. In this article, revered consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon Mr Numan Shah delves into the diverse causes of hip pain and sheds light on the potential consequences of leaving hip pain untreated.

Does hip pain always require surgical treatment?

Hip pain can take different shapes and develop a variety of signs and symptoms for the individual patient. Although pain is a common feature in hip problems, not all types of hip pain require surgical treatment.

There a number of different parts of your hip which may develop painful stimulus. This could potentially be related to the joint, even where there is no type of degeneration or arthritis. Where degeneration or arthritis are present, however, an operation may be indicated but this depends on your symptoms, how severe they are, and how they affect you.

If the cause of hip pain is not the joint, it could be related to the ligaments, nerves or the muscles around the hip joint itself. Each specific type of pain around the hip is treated and managed differently.

What are the leading causes of hip pain?

As I mentioned previously, our hip joints (and our bodies generally) are quite complex bits of machinery. In fact, they're designed to provide locomotion, which means movement from one place to the next.

The hip joint itself is called a ball and socket joint, within which you have articular cartilage. You also have a capsule and ligaments surrounding that hip joint, as well as nerves and muscles, and finally, the skin layer. Each of those parts of your hip joint can cause pain at any moment in your life, depending on any trauma or injuries you may have sustained, potentially in sports. As a result, you will have certain specific signs and symptoms that will alert the expert who is treating you to the actual source of your pain, allowing them to then manage your symptoms appropriately.

What can happen over time if hip pain is left untreated?

There are various things that can happen if you leave your hip pain untreated, primarily depending on what the cause of your hip pain actually is. A lack of treatment can potentially have a detrimental effect.

For example, if you have arthritis, you may manage your symptoms through daily life by taking painkillers, making lifestyle modifications and undergoing physiotherapy, and perhaps even undergoing treatment by injection. Although this is a generally positive scenario, the hip joint will continue to wear out over time and could perhaps reach a stage where the bones themselves start to erode. Should this occur, subsequent treatment, such as a hip replacement, becomes much more difficult and challenging for the surgeon, and can also make your recovery longer as it becomes a complex procedure.

In another example, should you neglect any sports injuries, such as ligament or muscle injuries, where you do not rest or do the appropriate physiotherapy, there is a tendency for these injuries to linger. If you do not give your body the time that it needs to rest, this can definitely affect you adversely. However, a lot of things can settle down in time and you don't necessarily need to see an expert about hip pain, as your GP or other healthcare professionals can help you in the first instance. When hip pain becomes intolerable, however, at that time, you do need to seek specialist medical advice.



If you would like to learn more about hip replacement surgery, you can read more of Mr Shah’s expert insight on the topic in his latest article.

If you are concerned about recurrent hip pain and wish to schedule a consultation with Mr Shah, you can do so by visiting his Top Doctors profile today.