Osteoarthritis is a very common disease that can greatly affect our mobility and quality of life. Osteoarthritis is commonly found in the weight-bearing joints of the body. The knees, hips, lower back, and neck.
It usually starts off gradually and most people continue on until it reaches the stage that medical advice is required. If you are complaining of knee pain, you doctor should also question you on your lower back and hips and assess these joints.
Referred pain is when the sensation of pain is felt in an area other than the location in which it is caused. Osteoarthritis of the hip commonly causes hip, groin and buttock pain but it is not limited to these areas. Pain from an arthritic hip can be felt radiating down the thigh and into the knee. It is not uncommon for a patient to present to their doctor complaining of only knee pain when the cause is their hip. This can come as a surprise when the doctor starts ignoring your knee and starts asking you about the joint above.
Osteoarthritis can be easily diagnosed on x-ray and when the knee film looks too good to explain the pain, the hip is the next suspect. Pain is not the only symptom of this type of arthritis and your doctor may suspect the hip after examining you due to a loss of the normal range of motion.
Of course there is always the possibility that you have arthritis in both your hip and knee at the same time. In this case it is hard to be sure which joint is responsible for the majority of the symptoms. Your surgeon will advise you in this situation.
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