Hip Pain

Pain in the hip can arise from many sites and pathologies. Hip problems can present with limp.

Key points 

• Hip pathology can cause pain in the groin, thigh or knee (referred pain) - so check hernia sites and in boys, testes. 
• Pain in the hip can be referred from the lower back (so check the spine, especially sacroiliac joints), the pelvis or abdomen. 
• Hip pathology covers red flag conditions, inflammatory arthritis (albeit single joint involvement at the hip is unusual) and orthopaedic conditions (Slipped Upper [Capital] Femoral Epiphysis, Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, Transient synovitis and Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip) and rarely idiopathic chondrolysis of the hip or protrusio acetabulae. 

 The photograph below shows a short leg secondary to hip disease (Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis)