A painful hip can severely affect your ability to lead a full active life. Over the last twenty five years, major advancements in hip replacement have improved the outcome of the surgery greatly. Hip replacement surgery is becoming more and more common as the population of the world begins to age. Osteoarthritis is perhaps the most common cause for hip replacement surgery. There may be a genetic tendency in some people that increases their chances of developing osteoarthritis.
Avascular necrosis is another cause of degeneration of the hip joint.
This leads to collapse of the femoral head and degeneration of the joint. Abnormalities of hip joint function resulting from fractures of the hip and some types of hip conditions that appear in childhood can also lead to degeneration many years after an injury. The symptoms of a degenerative hip joint usually begin as pain when bearing weight on the affected hip. You may limp, which is the body's way of reducing the forces that the hip has to deal with. Bone spurs will usually develop which limit movement of the hip joint.