Hip and Leg Pain
Overview
Hip pain is a common complaint that can be caused by a wide variety of problems. The precise location of your hip pain can provide valuable clues about the underlying cause.
Problems within the hip joint itself tend to result in pain on the inside of your hip or your groin. Hip pain on the outside of your hip, upper thigh or outer buttock is usually caused by problems with muscles, ligaments, tendons and other soft tissues that surround your hip joint.
Hip pain can sometimes be caused by diseases and conditions in other areas of your body, such as your lower back. This type of pain is called referred pain.
Leg pain can be constant or intermittent, develop suddenly or gradually, and affect your entire leg or a localized area, such as your shin or your knee. It can take a number of forms — stabbing, sharp, dull, aching or tingling.
Some leg pain is simply annoying, but more-severe leg pain can affect your ability to walk or to bear weight on your leg.
Causes
Hip pain may be caused by arthritis, injuries such as hip fractures, or other problems such as an infection.
Most leg pain results from wear and tear, overuse, or injuries in joints or bones or in muscles, ligaments, tendons or other soft tissues. Some types of leg pain can be traced to problems in your lower spine. Leg pain can also be caused by blood clots, varicose veins or poor circulation.
Symptoms
The most common signs of hip and leg pain are pain from the following areas:
- Inside of the hip and groin
- Outside of the hip, upper thigh or outer buttock.
- The entire leg.
- Parts of the leg, such as the shin.
Treatments
Over-the-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) may help ease your hip pain.
Prescription medications such as NSAIDS may help reduce inflammation.
Physical therapy sessions that help to strengthen the abdominal or core muscles may help you in the process of strengthening hip muscles. Improvement of hip muscles through the help of physical therapy may help to relieve pain.
Intra-articular Injections can provide relief to hip pain. A cortisone injection is made directly into the hip.
Trochanteric Bursa Injections may help with outer hip pain caused by bursitis