What Is Hip Degeneration?

Hip degeneration is a form of osteoarthritis (OA) centralized in patients’ hips, usually in older populations. OA afflicts more than 25 million Americans, affecting joints all over their bodies, including knees, lower back, wrists, fingers, and hips.

Also called hip osteoarthritis, this condition involves joint inflammation and damage wearing cartilage surrounding the hip joint, causing bones in the hip to grind against one another. The lack of cartilage is the central originator of pain in this painful disease.

Causes & Symptoms

This painful, often debilitating condition, can be caused by past hip injuries, naturally-occurring incorrect alignment of the joints, obesity, and playing sports that stress the hip.

Hip degeneration is characterized by stiffness in the hip joint, often incurred when rolling out of bed. This stiffness is further exacerbated by staying sedentary for stretches of time, causing more pain than if patients are active. Sounds of crunching in the hip joints caused by bone spurs and lack of cartilage — those affected also report feeling a sandpaper-like rubbing of bones in the hip. Advanced hip OA also manifests itself in those affected being unable to comfortably perform body motions that involve the hip, sometimes as simple as putting on one’s socks.

Treatments

Platelet rich plasma

Platelet rich plasma therapy, often shortened to PRP, hastens the body’s natural healing process. PRP helps fix worn-out bones, joints, tendons, and muscles. Physicians administer this therapy by injecting it directly into problem areas.

Stem cell therapy

This therapy involves injecting stem cells into bones and joints in the hip, causing afflicted areas to heal faster than normal. Stem cell therapy uses stem cells removed from patients’ bone marrow. Physicians culture them for three to five days, growing the number of stem cells dramatically for better results in treating hip degeneration.