Hip Anatomy

The hip is a simple ball and socket joint where your thighbone joins with your pelvis. Surrounded by cartilage, muscles and ligaments, your hip is the largest weight-bearing joint in your body. Smooth cartilage and bone help you walk easily and without pain.

The hip joint is covered with a rubbery type of tissue that pads the joints and is powered by large muscles. When all of the parts, cartilage, muscles and tendons are healthy, a hip should move easily.

A diseased hip is when one or more parts of the hip are damaged and movement becomes stiff. Over time, cartilage starts to crack or wear away. When this happens, the bones making up the joint rub together. Stiffness and pain occur when the ball starts to grind in the socket. Unfortunately, cartilage does not have the ability to repair or replace itself like other tissues in the body. Once cartilage is damaged or destroyed, it is gone forever.

There are many reasons why your hip may become diseased. Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, is a condition that causes “wear and tear” to your joint cartilage. It typically develops after years of constant motion and pressure in the joints. As the cartilage continues to wear away, the joint becomes increasingly painful and difficult to move.

Inflammatory arthritis is a chronic disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or gout, which can cause swelling and heat (inflammation) in the joint lining, resulting in stiffness and pain.

Traumatic arthritis is inflammation of a joint resulting from an injury and is characterized by a breakdown of the bone and cartilage, bleeding in the joint space and increased thickness of the bone, a flattening of the joint surface, separation of joint cartilage from the underlying bone and/or erosion of the bone.