Hip Surgery

Acute and chronic hip pain can make the simplest of activities difficult. The Kings Park Hospital in Stirling offers rapid diagnosis by an experienced Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and swift access to up-to-date treatments that alleviate pain and help you regain strength.

The hospital provides a range of treatments for hip pain, from non-invasive physiotherapy to total hip replacements requiring complex surgery under general anaesthetic.

Our highly trained Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons have extensive knowledge of hip pain and other clinical interests that help diagnose hip problems.

Kings Park Hospital is easy to get to for patients in Forth Valley and further afield, with access from the M9, A91 and A905. The hospital also has free parking.

Hip surgery deals with problems arising from the hip joint and is a sub-speciality within orthopaedic surgery.

Issues with the hips can arise from injury, bone diseases such as osteoarthritis and avascular necrosis (AVN), the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis, and fractures and dislocations.

Our Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons mostly see patients with hip arthritis at The Kings Park Hospital. However, they also see those with bursitis, tendonitis, labral tears, piriformis syndrome and trochanteric syndrome.

Surgery is always the last resort; our orthopaedic surgeons will begin with non-invasive treatments first. Examples include painkillers, local anaesthetic (steroid) injections for soft-tissue pain around the joint such as bursitis, physiotherapy to improve movement in the joint, and walking aids and exercise.

Your orthopaedic hip surgeon may suggest a hip replacement operation if your range of motion is limited. Other reasons include the pain being so bad it interferes with everyday tasks, disturbing your sleep or causing depression, and affecting your quality of life.

The procedure takes between an hour and an hour and a half and is done under a general anaesthetic (you’re asleep). Surgery is open, rather than keyhole, and complex. It involves removing the damaged or worn hip joint and replacing it with an artificial implant (prosthesis). Today’s sturdy artificial joints last for at least 15 years.

Our Consultant Orthopaedic Hip Surgeons also offer hip revision surgery, which removes a worn implant and replaces it with a new one.

Hip arthroscopy (keyhole hip surgery), which deals with soft tissue problems, requires sub-specialist surgery. If your consultant feels this is the way forward, they will refer you to colleagues who specialise in the procedure at The Ross Hall Hospital in Glasgow.

You can expect to see a skilled Consultant Orthopaedic Hip Surgeon with a wealth of experience at The Kings Park Hospital. You can refer yourself, or your GP or other specialists can refer you.

Our consultants prefer to have a GP letter, as this provides information that helps diagnose your complaint. It may also include details of any related health issues such as metal implants that might impact potential diagnostic tests and treatments. Private medical insurers also usually ask to see a copy of your referral letter before agreeing to cover any diagnostics or treatment.

After checking in at our friendly reception desk, you’ll take a seat in the outpatient waiting area. Your consultant will come and get you and take you to a private consultation room where they’ll put you at ease and discuss the issues you’ve been having.

They will examine your hip for swelling and tenderness and ask you to move around so that they can check for any abnormal movement. If your consultant needs to find out more about the cause of your pain, they may request an x-ray. Our radiographers can often perform x-rays at the same time as your consultation.

After you have had your x-ray, you will return to the consultation room. Your consultant will review the x-ray straight away and either provide you with a diagnosis and treatment plan or organise further investigations.

At this stage, your consultant may advise you have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. An MRI scan is a safe procedure that takes detailed images of the body’s organs and tissues. It uses strong magnets, so if you have any metal in your body, such as a pacemaker or rods used in a fracture, please endure you inform your surgeon.

We always offer non-surgical treatment options as the first-line treatment for hip pain at Kings Park Hospital. For example, our consultants work closely with our Chartered Physiotherapists so that they can tailor any exercise treatment plans to you. Your consultant may also offer a steroid injection, which they can perform at your initial appointment, to reduce the pain.

If they advise hip replacement surgery, your consultant will explain everything that happens in layman’s terms. We encourage you to ask questions if anything is unclear. They will give you an email address to get in contact with your surgeon if you have any further queries after you’ve left the hospital.

After you have had time to think everything through, and if you wish to go ahead with surgery, you can contact the hospital to book your procedure. We can usually arrange surgery within a couple of weeks.

After surgery, you’ll spend a few nights in Kings Park Hospital, which has private rooms equipped with TVs, WiFi and en-suite bathrooms. Our experienced nursing team will care for you during your stay and will see your consultant and one of our physiotherapists.

If you have a soft-tissue problem requiring a hip arthroscopy, your consultant will refer you to a consultant at Ross Hall Hospital in Glasgow who can perform this procedure.

Seeing a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon quickly at The Kings Park Hospital gives you the best chance of getting back on your feet fast and doing the things you love.

As highly qualified sub-specialists in hip pain, our Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons are best equipped to tell you whether surgical or non-surgical intervention is required.

If you go ahead with hip replacement surgery, we offer an enhanced recovery programme (ERP) to support your health and wellbeing as you recover.