The hip is the deepest ball and socket joint in the body. It is inherently a very stable joint through its bony and cartilage anatomy in additional to ligamentous support. However, hip pain is common and is often felt in the thigh, groin or outside of the hip. Many structures around the hip can cause pain. Some common conditions include hip joint issues such as osteoarthritis, femoroacetabuler impingement (FAI) and hip dysplasia (shallow hip joint). Common tendon issues of the hip include gluteal tendinopathy, psoas tendinopathy and proximal hamstring tendinopathy. Sports injuries are also common around the hip joint region. Groin and hamstring strains for example are very common in football and other multi-directional sports.
Physiotherapy has been shown to be effective at improving pain and function in patients with hip osteoarthritis and femoroacetabular impingement. Research has suggested that 8 physiotherapy sessions over 12 weeks consisting of hip joint manual therapy, specific strengthening exercises targeted to the individual participant’s physical impairments had moderate to large effects at reducing pain and disability.
Physiotherapy has also been shown to be effective in managing gluteal tendinopathy. Research supports a graded strength exercise programme to the gluteal muscles, which led to lower pain intensity and higher patient reported global improvement than corticosteroid and a control group at 8 weeks and 1 year.
