Welcome back to our ARC Therapy blog post! Hopefully everyone is staying healthy and happy during this time. This week we are going to about hip osteoarthritis, or hip OA for short. This is the most common cause of hip pain in older adults (over age 50), and has been shown to affect up to 27% of this age group. It is found to be more prevalent in males. Symptoms presentation is as follows: Anterior or lateral hip pain during weight-bearing activities, hip stiffness that last less than 1 hour in the morning, hip internal rotation less than 24 degrees or hip internal rotation and flexion that is 15 degrees less than opposite limb, and painful passive hip internal rotation/flexion.
Specific attention should be made to provide patients with manual therapy such as soft tissue mobilization and joint mobilizations initially during the treatment. This may include a thrust manipulation, which is a skilled joint stretch provided by your therapist at a high velocity and low amplitude. Other forms of joint stretching include traction, which helps to reduce pressure on the joint by separating the two surfaces. Passive stretching to tight muscles as well as soft tissue mobilization (no, we don’t like to call it massage), can also provide relief. As you gain more motion, we will provide strengthening and balance exercises to the hip, low back, and rest of the lower extremity to help augment the gains made in range in motion as well as help prevent future falls. As we have in previous posts, we will provide video demonstrations of specific stretches and strengthening exercises for your preference.
Of course, we would love to see you down at the clinic for a more specific and detailed examination and treatment plan to help with your needs. As always, be safe and well and we hope to see you at our next post soon!