The hip joint is a large joint where the leg joins the pelvis. If these joint experiences arthritis, injury, or mechanical stress, one may experience hip, buttock, leg, or low back pain.
A hip joint injection may be considered for patients with these symptoms. The injection can help relieve the pain, as well as help diagnose the direct cause of pain.
Purpose of Hip Joint Injections
Hip joint injections involve injecting medicine directly into the joint. These injections can help diagnose the source of pain, as well as alleviate the discomfort:
- Diagnostic function: By placing numbing medicine into the joint, the amount of immediate pain relief experienced will help confirm or deny the joint as a source of pain. If complete pain relief is achieved while the hip joint is numb it means this joint is likely to be the source of pain.
- Pain relief function: Along with the numbing medication, time-release cortisone is also injected into these joints to reduce inflammation, which can often provide long term pain relief.
Steroid Injections
Steroid is a strong anti-inflammatory and can provide rapid pain relief. The duration of the pain relief from a steroid injection varies considerably and it is not possible to predict how long an injection will last. Broadly speaking the less severe the arthritis the longer they last. Patients with severe arthritis and those who are overweight do not respond for long periods of time.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection for the hip
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are a type of regenerative therapy. They help you manage pain in tendons, ligaments, muscles and other injuries. The injection uses your body’s own healing properties in blood to treat pain and stimulate healing.
Platelets make up blood, along with white and red blood cells. They help with clotting when you get a cut. They also contain proteins and growth factors that help with healing cuts. Plasma is the liquid part of your blood. It’s made mostly of water. PRP contains a higher concentration of platelets than normal blood does.
Before your doctors consider a surgical treatment for managing hip pain and other injuries, they exhaust all non-surgical options first. Doctors often use PRP in treating pain in your hips and restoring function and range of motion.