Osteoarthritis is a clinical disorder that occurs due to the deterioration of the joint cartilage and subsequent bones forming the joint, causing pain and limitation of movement in the joint. As a result of the increase in average life expectancy with developing medical facilities, it has become a more common disorder in recent years.
Although hip arthritis is generally a disease of old age (after the age of 70), it can sometimes occur at an early age. There are two important reasons for hip calcification seen at an early age. The first is congenital hip dislocations, or more medically speaking, developmental hip joint disorders. Although its frequency has decreased in our country with the increase in early diagnosis in recent years, it still remains an important orthopedic problem. If these cases are diagnosed in infancy, they can be treated with special casting and sometimes surgery, depending on the situation. In cases that are not diagnosed or treated in time, calcification occurs at an early age because the anatomical structure of the hip is damaged. Calcification may occur even earlier, especially in people who are more active. In this case, activity restriction, physiotherapy and hip injection treatments, and surgical joint correction operations can be applied in cases where joint disorder is severe. Physiotherapy must also include exercises. If the anatomical defect in the hip is mild, injections, especially PRP injections, may be useful. PRP injections, in which the platelets in the patient's own blood are concentrated and applied to the patient's joint, are applied 3 times with a one-month interval. In this way, calcification can be slowed down. Sometimes cartilage injections can be applied to reduce friction. Prosthesis surgery is required in joints where calcification is high. Here, the main goal should be to delay the patient's prosthesis as much as possible. Longer-lasting ceramic prosthesis should be applied to young patients. Since these ceramic prostheses have a lifespan, revision surgery may be required in the future. Therefore, the main goal should be to delay the operation as much as possible. In this case, cortisone injections can save the patient a few years. Hip injections must be performed with ultrasound or scopy-guided imaging.
Other causes of early hip calcification i is femoroacetabular impingement syndrome. This disorder has become better known in the last 10 years and has been found to be responsible for premature calcification that occurs for no apparent reason. The problem with this disorder is that there is a congenital mismatch between the hip bone (the ball of the femur) and the corresponding joint socket. Sometimes the femoral head may be overly covered by the joint socket (pincer impingement) or the femoral head may be hump-shaped rather than round (cam impingement) (picture). In both cases, cartilage damage and premature arthritis due to abnormal friction in the joint may occur, especially in active individuals. Patients with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome usually initially complain of mild groin pain after activity. Later, this pain gradually increases and becomes permanent. This disorder can be diagnosed by examination and angled films. MRI examination may also be required to show the condition of the cartilage and the edge cartilage we call the labrum. If the findings are mild in these patients, restriction of the patient's activity, physiotherapy, cartilage and PRP injections may be useful. In cases where compression is severe, the patient should undergo arthroscopic bone shaving and, in necessary cases, cartilage repair surgery. With successful surgery, the patient's symptoms can be significantly reduced and radical surgery (prosthesis operation) can be significantly delayed. The important thing here is early diagnosis.
Early diagnosis and correct treatment are extremely important in both cases. In this way, with early intervention before calcification progresses, the patient can be protected from radical surgical operations such as prosthetic surgery, and in the worst case scenario, this operation can be delayed for a long time.
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