Snapping Hip Syndrome

Snapping Hip Syndrome Treatment in Kansas City, MO

What is Snapping Hip Syndrome?

Snapping hip is a situation in which you feel or hear a popping sound in your hip when you walk, get up from a chair, or move your leg around.

When a muscle or tendon (the strong tissue that connects muscle to bone) moves over a bony bump in your hip, you feel a snapping sound.

Even though snapping hip usually doesn’t hurt and isn’t dangerous, the feeling can be annoying. Snapping the hip can sometimes cause bursitis, which is a painful swelling of the fluid-filled sacs that support the hip joint.

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Snapping Hip Symptoms

As its name suggests, snapping hip can cause a popping or clicking sound that can be heard. Most of the time, it doesn’t hurt, but when you bend your hip, you might feel a clicking or popping sound.

If you have this problem, you may also have the following symptoms:

  • Pain
  • Inflammation
  • Muscle weakness in the leg when you try to lift your leg sideways or forward
  • Difficulty with routine physical activity like walking or standing from a chair
  • The feeling of your hip coming out of place

What Causes Snapping Hip Syndrome?

Most of the time, a snapping hip is caused by tight muscles and nerves around the hip. People who play sports or do other activities that require them to bend at the hip over and over again are more likely to get snapping hip. Dancers are particularly at risk.

Snapping hip is also more common in young athletes. This is because, during teenage growth spurts, the muscles in the hip often get tight.

Snapping Hip Syndrome Treatment

Most people don’t go to the doctor for a snapped hip unless it hurts. If the popping hip bothers you, but not enough to make you want to see a doctor, try one of the following simple home remedies:

  • Cut back on your activities and put ice on the area
  • Use aspirin or ibuprofen or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve pain
  • Change your sport or workout so that you don’t move your hips over and over again. For example, ride your bike less and swim with just your arms

If you’re still in pain after trying these simple solutions, you should see a doctor for professional help.

Depending on what is causing your snapping hip, your doctor may also suggest:

  • Physical therapy – A physical therapist can show you how to do exercises that will stretch and strengthen the muscles around the hip
  • Steroid injections – If you have hip bursitis, your doctor may suggest that you get a corticosteroid injected into the bursa to reduce the painful swelling
  • Surgery – If you have a snapping hip and it doesn’t get better with non-invasive treatments, your doctor may suggest hip surgery. What kind of surgery is done will depend on what caused the condition initially

Snapping Hip Syndrome Care in Kansas City

If you have any of the above symptoms of snapping hip, please contact Orthopedic Health of Kansas City to schedule an appointment with one of our hip and pelvis experts in Kansas City. They will do whatever it takes to get you back on your feet, from easy physical therapy to complicated surgery.