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Hip pain
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025

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Hip pain may be caused by heavy physical exertion or its complete absence. Often they are noticed immediately after getting out of bed and may be of a permanent nature. They may also be accompanied by a feeling of stiffness, limitation and instability in movements. Hip pain can be either chronic, lasting for many months and sometimes years, or acute and short-term.
Causes of Hip Pain
It can occur in the groin, at the junction of the lower abdomen and upper thigh, as well as in the lumbar spine. In some cases, pain may not appear in the hip itself, but only in its muscular part. The occurrence of pressing pain is caused by irritation of the mucous bursa of the hip. In a small percentage of cases, pain in the hip can be caused by some infectious diseases or tumors. What diseases can cause pain in the hip? Firstly, according to statistics, the most common cause of pain in the hip is wear and tear of the hip joint. Or rather, not the joint itself, but the cartilage-pad that is in it, and when completely worn out, it leads to friction of the bone directly against the bone, which causes very severe pain. Such wear of the cartilage determined the name of the disease - coxarthrosis, that is, arthrosis of the hip joint. The greatest risk of contracting this disease is between the ages of 50 and 60, but cases of 20-30 years can also be an exception. The pain can change its intensity with changes in temperature, atmospheric pressure, and air humidity.
The causes of hip pain can be both natural and unpredictable, such as injuries or accidents, congenital leg defects or diseases associated with metabolic disorders. In some cases, hip pain is also caused by so-called systemic arthritis, in which inflammation is localized in several joints.
Rheumatic processes or chronic arthritis are often the cause of pain. And we know such types of rheumatic diseases as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathy, migratory polyarthritis or rheumatism.
No less often than the previous factors, pain in the hip and buttocks can be caused by osteoarthritis and osteochondrosis of the sacral and lumbar spine, and a little less often by inflammation of the sacroiliac joints. The spread of pain in such cases is traced along the back of the thigh and the outer surface of the buttock.
One of the causes of traumatic pain is damage to the ligaments and muscles in the hip joint area.
The most dangerous causes of hip and gluteal pain are cardiovascular diseases, severe infections and neoplasms.
Hip pain in children can be caused by factors and diseases such as:
- Osteochondropathy of the epiphysis (head) of the femur;
- Fractures of the femoral neck;
- Slipped capital femoral epiphysis;
- Congenital hip dislocation and hip dysplasia.
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