Question
Hi Sharon. I had a Birmingham Hip Resurfacing done 6 months ago. I had severe osteoarthritis of the left hip joint and when it got to the point where I couldn't walk, I decided to have the surgery. I'm 58 and in excellent health... always worked out and was an athlete. I did well with surgery and progressed very fast with PT. After 2-3 months I was walking 2-3 miles a day with no pain at all and took no meds for pain. I still needed canes to walk and was retraining my muscle memory as well as strengthening my opposite hip, which became weak due to the way I previously walked. Then, about 2 months ago while walking, I tripped and fell on my implant hip. I had some pain.. saw my orthopedic surgeon for x-ray and check and he found no problem and attributed the pain to slight muscle tearing from the fall.. no problem was found with the implant or bone and no fracture was seen. This improved quickly but then I was sitting in a car for several (unplanned) hours.. the day after, I started getting lateral pain.. saw the surgeon again... attributed it to bursitis... ice and rest and stretching... again got better, but about 2 weeks ago I started to get some sharp pain in the joint (groin area - but not the groin.. pain exactly where the joint articulation would be) when I walk.. again saw the surgeon.. no problems with the implant.. no fractures seen... no history of fall or trauma. He attributed it to some type of "impingement" of the capsule.. Said to try some anti inflammatory meds and rest... after 10 days of Mobic  bid.. no improvement.. joint hurts almost as much as it did pre-op.. lot of pain when I walk or put pressure on my leg. No pain when sitting. only when walking. I am an Oral Surgeon.. a good friend of mine who is a Family Med doc suggested a problem at the implant/ bone interface from the original fall and said to stay off it completely for 2 weeks and that it should heal... do you have any ideas or have you seen or heard of this problem of unwarranted pain when walking after being pain free? I also read it could be from muscle weakness... I did stop exercising after the fall.. or another possibility is some people will experience pain after several months for no apparent reason and can last up to 24 months... you comments are appreciated.. Regards, Bill

Answer
Hi Bill

Unfortunately I am not a doctor and really can't give you the answers you want.

I can however, as a THR patient of many revisions, tell you that I sometimes get pain for no apparent reason on and off.  It does go away and I attribute it to muscle weakness.

My only concern in your case is that the pain is in the joint area.  It could be muscles, but it could be something not showing up on the X-ray.  Did your doctor do an arthrogram?  That might show a bit more than just an X ray.

If I were you, I'd get a second opinion anyway, just to ease your mind.

Best of luck to you

Sharon