The hip joint is the joint where the bones of the upper leg join with the torso. There is one hip joint on either side of the pelvic bone which is the main structure that gives strength to the pelvic cavity. The femur from each bone attaches to the side of the pelvic bone in the hip joint. One can immediately understand that the hip joint is one of the crucial joints of the body. Mobility of the legs is determined by the hip joint. That being said, hip injuries are less common than ankle and knee injuries. The reason for this is that a lot of the physical stress from running gets absorbed and distributed through the ankle joint and the knee joint. This means that it is less likely for an individual to suffer from hip problems. However, hip joint problems can be excruciatingly painful because the hip joint does not necessarily get rest when the individual is sitting or lying down.
A hip arthroscopy is performed to examine the inner workings of the joint in detail. Like all the other major joints in the body, the hip joint will feature tendons, ligaments, bone endings, cartilage and space within the joint. These parts of the joint have to be examined in detail to get a clear picture of the workings of the joint and its status. The major advantage of a hip arthroscopy procedure is that it is an outpatient procedure. If there is no surgery performed, the hip arthroscopy recovery time is minimal. The incision wound may take a few days to heal, but barring that, there should be no major pain suffered by the patient.
The hip arthroscopy procedure is conducted with the patient lying on the side that is not being examined. The hip arthroscopy procedure is conducted under local anesthesia so that the patient does not feel any pain in the joint when the hip arthroscopy procedure is being performed. During the hip arthroscopy, the images will be recorded for further study and analysis. This is done to ensure that any problems that were missed may be noticed in subsequent evaluations of the procedure.
If the hip arthroscopy procedure involves the use of surgical tools to repair some joint damage, then the patient may be immobile for a considerable period of time. In this case, the hip arthroscopy rehabilitation will involve physiotherapy and repeated scans to ensure that the recovery is taking place correctly.