Thigh pain after hip replacement

Painful thigh after hip replacement surgery — why?

By the time you receive a hip replacement, you are likely to have been living with pain for quite some time. In getting the surgery, you were hoping for relief. It can come as a shock to discover that this life-changing surgery brings you more pain, this time around your thighs.

Thigh pain after hip replacement surgery is not uncommon, however. People who experience this kind of pain after their hip replacement surgery usually don't need to worry too much about this symptom. The severity of pain after a hip replacement surgery will vary from person to person, as it is influenced by various factors.

Still, the main cause of pain in the thigh after a hip replacement surgery can be found in over-stressing the hip that was operated, or in other words doing too much with it too soon after the surgery. The thigh pain is usually not long-lasting, and the severity of your thigh pain should gradually diminish as more time elapses.

Another common occurrence after a hip replacement surgery, which might or might not be associated with pain, is a specific clicking noise. It can be heard on some occasions, usually as you walk or just move your leg to a new position.

What is a cause for alarm is pain that either increases over time or does not go away as the time passes. This sometimes indicates that there has been some complication, and the doctor who performed the surgery should examine you to see what went wrong.

Causes of pain in the thigh after hip replacement surgery

There are numerous complications of hip replacement surgery that might cause problems such as pain in the thigh. For example, the site that was operated on might have become infected, and this post-operative infection could have spread to nearby parts of the body and pain caused by inflammation and bacterial toxins could be felt there.

It is even possible that the operation was not successful, meaning that the replaced hip might get loose very soon after the surgery. If the pain begins when the patient starts to use the operated hip again (walking or engaging in other activities), this is indicative of ongoing complications. Also,surgery will affect various tissues in the region, and these will react to the injury through producing a sensation of pain.

Other causes of pain in your thighs after a hip replacement operation include possible ossification within the muscles, a fatigue fracture of the pelvis, or nerve damage. Pain in the thigh might also be entirely unrelated to your recent hip replacement surgery. In this case, the symptom may be a result of a problem in the spine or some sort of vascular disease.

Before you jump to conclusions, consult the doctor who performed the surgery and run some tests to determine what exactly causes the pain. In some cases, a second surgery will have to be carried out, to fix up whatever went wrong with the first surgery. Study results indicate that about ten percent of people who underwent hip replacement surgery suffer from thigh pain and similar problems that can be resolved by another surgery.