“Can hip arthritis be fixed?”

When we lose cartilage in a major joint such as a hip it makes all weight-bearing activities a painful chore; osteoarthritis means there is cartilage loss in the joint. the initial mode of treatment (depending on how much cartilage is gone) is usually anti-inflammatory medications (IBUPROFEN (Advil ) or Naproxen (Aleve) and while these drugs can give some pain relief , they are NOT pain-meds per se, they are Anti-inflammatory drugs which must be taken on a regular basis and always after a meal (due to their one side effect for irritating the stomach and gut.) There are also steroid injections which can be a big help and also going to a physical therapist. If you have advanced arthritis and the non-operative treatments have NOT helped , depending on many other factors , you could possibly consider what's called a TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENT (an artificial/bionic mechanical hip) . This used to be a full week in the hospital after the surgery; now, we are seeing more and more overnight stays and even some are being done as an out-patient surgery. If you are under 60 yrs old, or take auto-immune drugs , or are diabetic with poor control, or have any other significant vascular/cardiac disease, as well as being obese , these all will knock you off the list to undergo a THR surgery. I hope this helps with your decision making . Mark L Mudano, MD

again, here, the specific type of arthritis is important to know but for PT general osteoarthritis of the hip, our approaches are designed to reduce the likelihood of progression. Unfortunately we have yet to discover a disease modifying drug for osteoarthritis. Therefore, when a hip is very diseased with bone on bone and other deformity, surgery is very effective in getting that patient back to much better function

As a seasoned academic joint replacement surgeon, I can tell you that the technology is not there yet. While we can provide palliative treatment for arthritis pain, once the cartilage injury has progressed to arthritis, you may be looking at a joint replacement. As surgeons, we always exhaust conservative management first, to include exercises, anti-inflammatory medications, and injections, but when these fail to control your symptoms and your pain progresses to the point that it impairs your activities of daily living and quality of life, I can tell you that a joint replacement will significantly and reliably improve your symptoms and your function.