Improving hip pain
Finding everyday activities difficult because of hip pain? Let Geisinger's orthopaedic specialists relieve your discomfort and make moving easier — so you can get back to living life.
Our approach at Geisinger
Every year, thousands of patients rely on our surgeons for joint replacements and state-of-the-art hip pain treatments.
Choose an orthopaedic team that’s recognized across the country for its experience and innovation in delivering world-class hip treatment options. And we’re a provider of Mako® robotic-assisted joint replacement surgery. This minimally invasive procedure relieves pain and restores mobility, helping you return to an active lifestyle.
With Geisinger, life-changing treatment is never far from home. Our hip pain team serves the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, Danville and central Pennsylvania, and the greater Harrisburg region.
Common hip pain causes
People of all ages and activity levels have hip pain. It can be caused by an injury or a health condition like:
- Osteoarthritis, also known as OA. This degenerative disease wears down the cartilage in your joints, so you have less cushioning and shock absorption. That can lead to severe pain and discomfort. It’s common to have OA in your hips. You might notice symptoms like:
- Pain in one or both hips
- Pain that seems to get worse when the weather is rainy or damp
- Pain from repetitive motion or long periods of inactivity, like sitting
- Stiffness when you wake up
- Tenderness, warmth, swelling or creaking in your hip joint
- Post-traumatic arthritis develops after an injury or an accident. For example, you might be diagnosed with post-traumatic arthritis as the result of a car accident or a repetitive use injury.
- Obesity or being overweight can put extra pressure on your joints, especially weight-bearing joints like your hips.
Hip Preservation Clinic
Are you active and age 35 or younger with hip pain? Our Hip Preservation Clinic will work with you to find an alternative to hip replacement surgery. We offer minimally invasive hip treatments to help you stay active and help reduce hip pain including:
- Hip resurfacing, a procedure that preserves worn or damaged cartilage or bone.
- Hip arthroscopy, a minimally invasive technique that helps repair hips.
- Osteotomy, a surgery to shift the hip inside the socket and relieve pain.
How to treat chronic hip pain
Geisinger’s orthopaedic specialists offer a wide array of treatment options for hip pain:
Nonsurgical treatments
We offer several non-surgical options that can help reduce swelling and restore mobility to your hip joint. As part of your treatment, your doctor may recommend starting with an injection such as:
- Cortisone – A steroid hormone commonly called a ‘steroid shot’, cortisone is directly injected into the sore joint to ease pain quickly and reduce inflammation.
- Gel injection - Your body naturally produces a substance called hyaluronic acid, a fluid which helps lubricate your joints. Hyaluronic acid injections, or viscosupplementation, helps increase the fluid around your joints.
- Platelet-rich plasma injections - Commonly known as a PRP injection, this treatment uses the healing and regrowth capabilities of platelets from your own blood.
- Stem cell injections – Stem cells are extracted non-surgically from bone marrow or fat tissue, then re-injected into the hip joint.
Hip replacement surgery
If you have severe hip pain when you’re active and at rest, and you have decreased range of motion and stiffness that doesn’t go away after nonsurgical treatment, you may be a candidate for hip replacement surgery.
Hip replacements are very common, with more than 300,000 surgeries performed in the United States every year.
Your Geisinger orthopaedic surgeon will be able to select an implant design best suited to you based on your lifestyle habits the condition of your biological joint.
In robotic-arm–assisted surgery, including Mako® robotic-assisted procedures, your Geisinger orthopaedic surgeon will use CT scanning to create 3-D images of your joint before the surgery to help plan the procedure. During surgery, he or she will guide the robotic arm to remove diseased bone and cartilage, then insert your hip implant.
Geisinger is the sole provider of Mako™ joint replacement surgery in the region, combining highly-advanced surgical technology with the orthopaedic care you trust.
- This minimally invasive surgery relieves pain, restores mobility and can help you return to an active lifestyle faster.
- It’s important to know that a robotic arm does not independently perform your surgery, nor can it make decisions on its own or move without the surgeon’s guidance.
Thanks to advances in minimally invasive procedures, like Mako robotic arm-assisted surgery and other tactics, patients who have a hip replacement experience better results with less scarring and downtime.
How long is hip replacement recovery time?
Less-invasive hip replacement procedures help shorten healing and rehabilitation times, with average hospital stays being as little as two nights. Some patients even go home the same day as their surgery.
Shortly after your surgery, your nurses and rehabilitation team will get you started with simple exercises to jump-start your muscles and get the blood flowing. After you recover for a few days, your care team will lay out a list of specific goals you’ll need to reach before they release you from the hospital, including getting in and out of bed without help, walking up and down several steps, and performing exercises with the help of a cane or walker.
After you’re discharged from the hospital, you can stay just as connected to your surgeon and care team. Our Force Therapeutics web program and mobile app allows patients and doctors to stay in touch on a daily basis to monitor progress and recovery. The program provides timely exercise and educational videos, as well as a messaging portal to communicate with your clinical team.
How long does a hip replacement last?
Hip replacements are very successful at reducing pain, increasing mobility and improving quality of life. In fact, the majority of hip replacements can last for a lifetime. Research shows that most people who have hip replacement surgery experience notably less pain, improved range of motion and maintain good function more than 15 years after their surgery.
When you receive a hip replacement at Geisinger, we’ll stand behind your surgery for a lifetime. This means that if you need any follow-up care related to your surgery, Geisinger and Medacta International (an international orthopedics company specializing in the design and production of innovative orthopedic products) will stand behind the full cost of care, as long as you remain in the care of a Geisinger provider and have Geisinger Health Plan insurance. This guarantee is the first of its kind in the world.
Is a hip replacement right for me?
If your hip joint pain has gotten to the point where it affects your daily life— such as if it hurts to walk, climb stairs or stand for extended periods of time— or your options for pain relief are not providing the support you need, consider scheduling a consultation with a Geisinger orthopaedic surgeon.
Need to see an orthopaedic doctor?
State-of-the-art hip replacement surgery at Geisinger
Geisinger is the sole provider of Mako™ joint replacement surgery in the region, combining highly-advanced surgical technology with the orthopaedic care you trust.
World-class hip care, close to home
Exceptional orthopaedic care is never far from home, from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and surrounding communities to Danville and central Pennsylvania to the greater Harrisburg region.
