What Causes Me to Have Hip Joint Pain at Night?

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The hip joint has what is known as a ball and socket joint. This is due to its appearance. The top of your inner thigh’s shaped like a ball.

This rounded structure sits in a half circular casing, where it pivots to give you movement and flexibility.

Sometimes damage or disease can cause an obstruction, which might result in extreme pain and quite possibly, loss of movement. Some of these diseases include; osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, avascular necrosis, bone cancer, bursitis, tendinitis, hip pointer, dislocated hip and hip labral tear.

I will explain a little about each of these and tell you which one causes your nightly hip pain.

The Agonies of Hip Disorders

Osteoarthritis is a disease that causes pain due to hip joint inflammation. It causes a breakdown of cartilage, the soft tissues that keep the bone and joint from rubbing against each other.

It can also create bone spurs. The exact cause is unknown, but doctors believe it has to do with the aging process.

Rheumatoid arthritis causes inflammation and pain in the joints. The swelling can become so severe that the joints become stiff, causing a person to have loss of movement in the infected area.

This autoimmune disorder generally affects the same joints, on both the right and left side of the body.

Aseptic necrosis is when the head of the femur dies because of inadequate blood flow. This’s generally caused by unrepaired damage to the hip.

It can be the result of; sickle cell anemia, Gaucher disease, lupus, alcohol use, HIV and kidney transplant.

Bone cancer can cause pain throughout the body. Although the cause is undetermined it’s thought that family history plays a part in it. Paget’s disease, radiation, and broken bones increase your risk.

Hip pointer occurs when someone has an injury at the iliac crest, the upper area of your hip. This is often seen in people who play sports.

Hip labral tear is when the cartilage, the soft limning between the ball and socket’s damaged. Specific activities Osteoarthritis and car accidents can cause this. Sometimes normal use breaks down the cartilage.

Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome, Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, and hip dysplasia increase your risks of getting this disorder.

Tendinitis is another disorder thing causes hip problems. Tendinitis is when the tendons and its sheath becomes irritated and inflamed.

This is generally caused by overworking the tendon. Injury can also cause this to occur.

Females, people who are overweight, or have a reduction in their flexibility seem to have the most problems.

Although all of the disorders mentioned above can cause a great deal of pain, in the hip region. Lying on the affected hip could exacerbate the disorder, which increases the pain. Their symptoms would be continual.

What Causes Me to Have Hip Joint Pain at Night

Your Nightly Visitor

Trochanteric Bursitis is the exception.  Its symptoms might occur during the day, but generally, it happens at night, after you’ve laid on your hip a few hours.

A person will be diagnosed with bursitis when the fluid-filled sac known as bursa is inflamed and becomes irritated.

A hip injury can cause bursitis. This injury can be a mild bump or small bruise.

Certain activities have been known to irritate this condition. Some of them include; bicycling, running and climbing stairs. Standing for a long time can increase the pain as well.

There are a few diseases that might cause this disorder, they include; scoliosis, rheumatoid arthritis, bone spurs, hip surgeries, calcium deposits, and other spinal disorders. If a person’s legs are unequal in length this too can cause bursitis. In addition, hip surgery might cause irritation to the area.

The other category of bursitis is ischial. It too is inflammation and irritation of the bursa sac. Unlike Trochanter bursitis, it causes pain in the buttocks area. It’s irritated by sitting for long periods of time, by climbing steps and other steep inclines.

If the bursitis isn’t caused by an infection, it’s classified as aseptic, but if a bacteria cased this to occur, which happens with gout and pseudogout then it’s considered septic bursitis.

Treatment for aseptic bursitis includes; rest, anti-inflammatory agents and ice to the affected hip.

Sometimes the doctor will remove the fluid from the infected area in his office, using sterile technique. This will prevent an infection from setting in.

The doctor may also want to prescribe cortisone shots to help ease the pain. Your physician might suggest for you to start a weight reduction and an exercise program.

He’ll probably suggest not to use stairs, or an area with an incline on your exercise regimen until the symptoms have subsided. It’s also a good idea to sleep on your non-infected hip as long as you’re experiencing symptoms.

Septic bursitis is an unusual occurrence. The doctor will generally aspirate some fluid from the infected hip.

He will them send it to the lab, to determine if there is an infection and the type of infection. This will help him decide which antibiotics will work the best.

Once a decision’s been made, he will start you on some IV antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicines.

During the course of the treatment, the doctor will continue to remove the fluid from your hip.

If you’ve shown little improvement over a specific amount of time, the doctor might want to drain the hip, surgically.

He could possibly do a procedure known as a bursectomy which is the removal of the infected bursa sac.

Winding it up

There are numerous things that can cause hip problems and pain. Some of them include diseases like; osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, avascular necrosis, cancer, hip pointer, hip labral tear, and tendinitis. Injury can also cause you to experience excruciating pain in the hip region.

The disorder that causes hip pain only at night is bursitis. This is an inflation, irritation to the bursa sac.

Treatment for this disorder might include things like; rest, ice packs, and anti-inflammatory agents. The doctor may suggest an exercise and weight management program.

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