Osteopathy treats more than back and neck pain. Hip pain is a common complaint many people experience ranging from runners, sports people, children and elderly. Hip pain can be traumatic, insidious gradual and or possibly reflect underlying pathology. Characteristic hip symptoms are pain worsening with activity, pain with twisting and changing directions. Seated positions may be uncomfortable and you may find difficulty rising from a seated position – especially into and out of the car.
If you come to us with hip pain, we will examine your whole body focusing on walking, standing and sitting posture – assessing asymmetry, alignment, leg length discrepancies, hip/leg/lumbar spine range of motions. We will aim to elicit point tenderness’ with systematic palpation and conduct special tests to narrow the scope of tissues causing symptoms. There are many specific injuries that may occur to the hip and the more measured the diagnosis is, the more tailored the treatment strategy is likely to be.
Common hip injuries include:
- Contusions
- Muscle strains (hamstring, adductor, rectus femoris, iliopsoas)
- Bursitis – Trochanteric, Iliopsoas, Ischial
- Nerve Entrapments
- Osteitis pubis
- Stress fractures
- Referred pain – lumbar disc, hernias, visceral disorders
An osteopath can tailor early management plans including reduce swelling, reduce pain intensity, and increase ranges of motion. An osteopath will continue to work with their patient into the strengthening phases of recovery and also assist the person into the prevention strategies of injury management.