When Steroid Injections Aren’t Enough for Hip Pain, Consider These Options

Chronic pain isn’t just physical. It can spur hopelessness and worry about whether you’ll ever be back to normal and free of discomfort again — just ask the 10% of adults who suffer from hip pain. 

Our expert provider team at Advanced Spine and Pain (ASAP) treats your hip pain with innovative approaches and creates a customized treatment plan for your specific symptoms. Our extensive experience and commitment to caring make ASAP a premier orthopedics practice centered on delivering the best in advanced care.

The burden of chronic hip pain

Occasional hip pain slows you down — chronic hip pain stops you in your tracks. It may be the result of:

• A chronic condition, like arthritis or osteoporosis
• An injury, such as a fracture
• An irritated sciatic nerve (sciatica), which runs along your buttocks and hips
• Bursitis, or inflamed fluid-filled sacs between muscles, tendons, and bones 
• Tendonitis, or inflammation of thick tissue bands that connect bones to muscle

Normal wear and tear, trauma, and repetitive movements all contribute to hip pain that can worsen over time and limit your ability to perform all sorts of daily tasks, as well as playing sports. 

Additional symptoms include a burning sensation in your hips, tingling or numbness, and swelling. Living like this can make it impossible to move normally or even put full weight on your affected leg.

One often-used treatment for hip pain is steroid injections, and we might even recommend multiple injections during your treatment, depending on the severity of your symptoms. They deliver steroidal anti-inflammatory medication and local anesthetic to the painful area. 

We inject epidural steroid injections into the lower spine, which addresses the pain that radiates to the hip. Some patients experience immediate relief, some notice relief after a few weeks, and others report no effect at all. 

Although effective for many, epidural steroid injections have a few side effects, including pain at the injection site, the possibility of pain worsening right after treatment before it gets better, and infection risk. 

We’re happy to report that you have plenty of other treatment options to try, which can stop your hip pain and get you moving freely again.

Alternatives to steroid injections for hip pain

Because our practice offers diverse care options to our patients, we’ve got several successful treatments that can eradicate your hip pain.

1. Taking it easy

Simply resting and limiting your activities can sometimes be enough to resolve your hip pain and allow you to move normally without discomfort again. 

2. Pain medication

Your ASAP provider may recommend over-the-counter or prescription pain medication to relieve hip pain. 

3. Physical therapy

Your physical therapist can provide manual PT to treat your symptoms and recommend exercises and stretches you can safely do at home. Often, a combination of a pain medication regimen and physical therapy can work wonders. 

4. Regenerative treatments

Regenerative medicine is an exciting treatment arena that centers around harnessing your body’s own natural healing powers to stimulate healing and address pain. 

We offer platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP), a concentrated mixture of your platelet-abundant plasma that we inject into your hip. You can also receive this therapy during and after hip surgery to hasten healing.

We also offer stem cell therapy, another minimally invasive pain treatment administered via injection. Amazingly, stem cells are self-renewing and can heal and replace damaged tissue. Like PRP therapy, we use your own blood and bone marrow for the treatment. 

In addition to faster healing, stem cell therapy helps lower your risk for future hip injury, increase hip function, and promote greater collagen production. Collagen is an all-important protein in your body that preserves the integrity of everything from your bones and skin to — you guessed it — your joints.

Rest assured that we can treat your hip pain creatively and successfully, freeing you from your painful burden. When you gain relief, your body doesn’t just thank you; you’ll feel like a distressing emotional burden has been lifted off your shoulders (and hips).

Contact the Advanced Spine and Pain office that’s most convenient for you to schedule an appointment today or book one online.