I m a 52 year old very active female that does pilates several times a week and walks a lot. I ve been told that I have significant lateral degenerative change of the hip with large joint effusion and degeneration of the labrum. I also have a non retracted insertional degenerative tear of the hamstrings. I have pain in my inner thigh when I walk and pain in my buttocks (which can be the tear?). What should I do?
Hi, This is going to be a problem. Cannot say specifically in your case without an exam and the pain can be from a minor problem with sore muscles (and the pain would be almost entirely demonstrable by light pressing on the muscles if that's the main problem...doubtful). And moving the hips in various directions or standing on the feet would trigger hip pain which "large effusion" implies a lot of hip problems. On the other hand, lumbar spine problems can also cause thigh pain in a particular pattern and this might even be more serious than hip problems. Healing is very long with tendons and never for cartilage (labrum). Surgery is generally not very good except for total joint replacement and that isn't going to necessarily help the tendons. There is the usual advice of heating pads, aspirin-like drugs, specifically increasing physical therapy to help support the areas of pain but the response with tendon and hip arthritis isn't going to be great. There are not good solutions but physical therapists generally are the best in giving advise on it. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Matt Wachsman, Addiction Medicine Specialist