Hip pain

If hip pain lasts for months, or if it is particularly sharp or severe, it can significantly interfere with everyday life, making even the simplest of daily tasks challenging.

At The London Independent Hospital, we offer a vast network of thousands of orthopaedic specialists here to help you escape your hip pain. Located in East London, around two miles from Canary Wharf, we see people from the City of London and Central London, as well as further afield.

Hip pain can affect people of all ages, although pain caused by osteoarthritis in the hip is more common as you age. We provide expert assessment and treatment for people with private medical insurance, as well as those who wish to use one of our fixed-rate self-pay options.

Due to our location, many of the people we see live or work in central London. Excellent transport links make it very easy to visit us from further afield though, and we often see people from Essex. We can help you, whether you have:

• Been struggling silently with hip pain for several years
• Previously had treatment elsewhere for hip pain that doesn’t seem to have helped
• Only recently started noticing pain in your hip and would appreciate an assessment by a consultant to see what is causing it

Hips are weight-bearing joints, involved in countless movements every day. From waking up first thing in the morning and getting out of bed, to pottering downstairs, walking around your house, or even sitting down and standing up, your hips are busy at work to make these everyday movements possible.

When your hips are working normally, movement is free of pain and stiffness. If something damages your hip, such as disease or trauma, it may become stiff and painful. Usually, more extensive damage to your hip will cause more severe symptoms, but this is not always the case.

Pain in the hip is hard to ignore, particularly when it is sharp or more severe, and you may find you are no longer able to do many of the things you enjoy. 

At home, you may find climbing your stairs becomes more difficult, and even sitting or lying down might be uncomfortable. If hip pain is waking you up at night, that is a strong indicator you should see an experienced hip consultant for assessment and advice.

When people first visit their consultant at The London Independent to discuss their hip pain, they will often describe their symptoms using one or more of these words:

• Throbbing
• Aching
• Sharp
• Stabbing

Hip pain isn’t even always in the same place for everybody. For example, if you are struggling with hip pain, you may find that it:

• Affects your left or right hip (or both)
• Runs from your hip and down the leg
• Is best described as groin pain
• Affects the inside or outside of the hip

In a similar way, people will experience hip pain at different times. Some will find that it is much more noticeable at night, while others will find it stays the same throughout the day.

Many people find that certain exercises like jogging or cycling cause their symptoms to flare up, while others will experience hip pain during pregnancy.

All these different variations of hip pain mean that proper assessment is needed before any type of treatment is given.

We asked one of our consultants working at The London Independent to describe the effects hip pain can have on daily life,. Here is what they told us:

 “Hip pain can be debilitating. It can cause problems getting dressed, putting shoes and socks on, getting out of a bath, walking, and sleep. All these things can affect your global, physiological health as we know steps and activity give us cardiovascular health.

In a younger person, hip pain may cause gluteal imbalance, with one leg becoming weaker than the other. It is hard to recover that muscle even with mild hip pain. This highlights the importance of identifying any problems in the hip earlier, and then taking prompt action.”

Mr Vivek Gulati, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

The most common cause of hip pain in adults in the UK is osteoarthritis, a type of arthritis. There is no one cause for this, but we do know there are a combination of genetic biochemical factors that can contribute to it. 

Pain on the outside of your hip may be caused by hip bursitis (also known as trochanteric bursitis or Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome). The gluteal muscles are the strongest muscles in your body. They attach outside the hip joint at a location called the greater trochanter. If this area becomes inflamed, it can cause pain. This most often happens in younger patients because of repetitive strain from too many weights or gym exercises, but it can also happen in more senior patients where gluteal muscles weaken with advancing years.

If you feel your hip is catching, locking or has sharp pain, you may be experiencing hip impingement. This is when the ball of the hip has an extra portion of bone that can catch in the socket and damage the membrane of the socket (labrum). An MR arthrogram is an excellent imaging modality for this, which can be arranged for you on-site if required.

If you have been training for a marathon and experience groin pain, it may be due to a stress fracture. It is very important to identify these promptly, and MRI is the best imaging modality to do this.

Occasionally, hip pain may not be caused by a problem in the hip. It may be referred from the spine.

There are other causes of hip pain. Any hip pain should be investigated with an MRI of the lumbar spine, and this is easily arranged for you right here in London. During your assessment at The London Independent Hospital, your consultant will arrange any diagnostic investigations needed to ensure the cause of your hip pain is correctly diagnosed.

Most people with hip pain will find that their pain can be managed or even fully resolved with non-operative treatments. These include:

• Physiotherapy
• Gentle exercise, like swimming
• Pain relief medication (analgesia)
• Anti-inflammatory or hip joint injections*

*Hip injections available at The London Independent include:

• Platelet rich plasma
• Hyaluronic acid gels - act as artificial lubricants inside the joint
• Steroids - can reduce pain

These injections are all done in our operating theatre as a day case. The sterile, safe environment helps reduce infection risk in the hip. We also use a special dye and X-ray imaging to make sure the injection is 100% accurate.

If surgery is advised, our surgical team can provide a range of treatments, including hip arthroscopy (keyhole surgery) and hip replacement surgery.

If you are struggling with any type of hip pain, you will understandably want to be out of pain as quickly as possible so that you can get back to normal life again.

We can help you get the most suitable treatment for your specific needs sooner. With consultant-directed care at every stage, you will be well looked after by our experienced team of healthcare professionals.

We appreciate just how demoralising and tough long-term hip pain can be to live with. We have helped thousands of people in London who were struggling with their hip pain and would be delighted to help you too.

Good, effective treatments are available for you here in London (without being stuck on a waiting list for months).

We look forward to meeting with you at The London Independent and helping you to get back to better, easier, pain-free movement in your hips once more.

When you choose to go private with Circle Health Group, you can expect:   

• Flexible appointment times to fit your schedule
• The freedom to choose your hospital and your consultant
• Bespoke, consultant-led treatment plans tailored to your individual needs  
• Private en-suite rooms as standard 
• Tasty and nutritious meals cooked onsite to your dietary requirements
• Support from the same compassionate clinical team from beginning to end  
• Affordable, fixed-price packages with aftercare included  
• Flexible payment options to help spread the cost of your care

If you want to know more about hip replacement surgery and find out if it's the right treatment for you, book your appointment online today or call a member of our team directly on 0141 300 5009.