Overview
Hip pain is a common complaint that can be caused by a wide variety of problems. The precise location of your hip pain can provide valuable clues about the underlying cause.
Problems within the hip joint itself tend to result in pain on the inside of your hip or your groin. Hip pain on the outside of your hip, upper thigh or outer buttock is usually caused by problems with muscles, ligaments, tendons and other soft tissues that surround your hip joint.
Hip pain can sometimes be caused by diseases and conditions in other areas of your body, such as your lower back. This type of pain is called referred pain.
Causes
Hip pain may be caused by arthritis, injuries or other problems.
- Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (formerly known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis)
- Osteoarthritis (disease causing the breakdown of joints)
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis (inflammatory joint disease)
- Septic arthritis
Injuries
- Bursitis (joint inflammation)
- Dislocation
- Hip fracture
- Hip labral tear
- Inguinal hernia
- Sprains
- Tendinitis
Pinched nerves
- Meralgia paresthetica
- Sacroiliitis
- Sciatica
- Advanced (metastatic) cancer that has spread to the bones
- Bone cancer
- Leukemia
Other problems
- Avascular necrosis (death of bone tissue due to limited blood flow)
- Legg-Calve-Perthes disease (in children)
- Osteomyelitis (a bone infection)
- Osteoporosis
- Synovitis