Researchers Discover Early Signs a Patient Will Have to Have a Total Hip Replacement

Osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip is a very painful and debilitating disease. And as the average age of the population rises, the number of cases will rise proportionally. While much is known about the causes of OA, there has been very little work done on looking for the risk factors that would raise a red flag and tell the physician that the patient was in danger of needing a hip replacement.

Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands have conducted a survey with 227 participants who first sort medical care for hip pain in 1996. The participants answered questions concerning the level of their pain as well as about their general health condition. They were given a complete physical and X-ray of the pelvic area and sonograms of the hip area.

Then after three years, they were given a follow up evaluation where they had a personal interview and answered questions concerning how the hip pain had progressed and whether or not they had undergone a total hip replacement.
They also evaluated their OA by using the WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index. After another three years, the participants were all mailed a similar follow up survey.

The results at the first three year mark were that 12% had undergone a THR due to extreme pain and/or disability resulting from Osteoarthritis of the hip. At the 6 year mark, it had increased to 36% and an additional 3 to 5% reported that they were beginning to experience severe pain or had developed a disability due to OR. They determined that those over the age of 60, those who experienced morning stiffness, pain in the groin, had trouble with extension and experienced pain when they tried to rotate the hip were at a high risk of having to have a THR.