Frozen hip or adhesive capsulitis of the hip.

Bones, joints and muscles
1

A little over a year ago I had a really bad fall in my hip, after few weeks I started to develop a little bit of discomfort and I went to see a doctor. Doctor sent me to physio but it didn't seem to help. 6 months later I had lots of snaping sounds, my leg start to give away. Now I saw a specialist that send me for diferent kind of tests, including bone scan, ct scan, X rays, MRI arthrogram. I didn't had any flexion, extension, abduction , adduction , internal rotation and external rotation. The results of all these tests came out negative, not even labral tear, my hip was perfectly fine.

I think the radiologists, doctors are very unfamiliar and misdiagnose these problem, they didn't know what to make out of it. The specialist wanted to send me back to my GP doctor, then I explain to him what I was thinking my problem was, "adhesive capsulitis of the hip" or "frozen hip" he got a surprise face and promise me to take a read on it and that I had to come back to see him, not after sending me for a second cortizone injection that didn't do nothing for me. Came back to see him after my second cortizone shot 6 weeks later, told me he had a read in to my problem and that was likely that I actually had that diagnosis. He mention to me he was very unfamiliar with this condition he would have to send me with another specialist to see if he would happen to see any of these diagnosis. Now Im waiting for the second specialist appointment. I live in Canada and here takes up to a year or more to see a specialist. Here I'm almost 14 months later, still suffering from a terrible pain, imposible to have a decent sleep at night. Im a 47 year old women and seems that Im in the age range for this kind of condition to ocurre. Despicte I think mine was because of the terrible accident I had. I just wanted to share this and see if anybody out there suffer the same condition or have been under diagnose. I hope to heard from any of you, would be really good to create awarenes of this terrible , debilitating condition.

Sorry, I hope my writting is good enough to understand.

2

Hello;

I am a massage therapist and an acupuncturist.  I have heard of this condition and agree it is under diagnosed.  I have only ever treated 1 person diagnosed with frozen hip, however I have treated a lot of frozen shoulders over the years with great success.  I have only started to treat this person diagnosed with frozen hip, but from my experience with frozen shoulder it is not a quick fix.  Massage and acupuncture are extremely effective if you find the right practitioners.  Even if surgery is the only option receiving treatment in the interim is very beneficial, and will brig you tremendous relief of pain even if the treatment itself is painful.  And it will be.

I feel that if you stick with the treatment diligently.  8 times out of 10 you can regain full range of motion.  Though the longer left untreated the harder it is to treat.  Unfortunately Doctors don't often recommend alternative medicine.  If you are on the West coast I would be happy to treat you otherwise look to your local colleges of acupuncture and massage for referrals!  Active release is very beneficial as well.  Or someone you know that has received treatment themselves and can give you a goo recommendation.  Good luck and be proactive!

3

Thanks a lot for your reply. Im still suffering feom frozen hip. Where are you located I may be able to.come and see you.

Thanks once again I really appreciate it.

4

Hi I read your post and I can relate to your injury. I also had a really bad fall almost a year ago, and I am in such pain on my left hip leg and foot. I went to a nerve specialist and nerve damage was ruled out. Can't remember the last time I slept the through the night. I can't lay on my left side all the discomfort is mostly in the hip region....and have had constant pain and discomfort everyday for almost a year.Looking for some answers and very happy that i stumbled on your post. I am also from Canada. I see my doctor on June 2 I will mention this frozen hip and see if she can direct me in the right direction for treatment. Take care I feel your pain.

Deb

5

Hi Debra, sorry for the delay in answer.

Im very sorry to heard of your injury, as well as you, Im still sufering, and my accident was almost 3 years this coming September.

Im still disabled unable to do my favorite activities.

Im wondering if we have similar symptoms. I already saw every posible solution except surgery that it maybe what I need.

I actually was doing a little better but yesterday I suffer another small fall right in the same hip. I was in terrible pain again after being almost free of pain in the last 3 months.

I was in a terrible pain for the longest time at least is getting better some how with the proper medication.

Im seeing a sport medicine doctor at the UBC Allan Mc Gavin Sport medicine clinic for now is basically pain medication and going to swiming pool to exercise my hip somehow. Im also trying to walk more but I need to use my cane the all time.

At the begining I couldnt exercise much because I ended up in terrible pain at night but is getting somehow better.

I think, exercising and trying to move your joint slowly and careful helps you big time.

Im wondering if you have also limited rotation.

I have very limited exterior rotation of my left hip but is almost like the femur and pelvis are glue together really strong, nothing help so far with this issue, so I think is what is not helping my healing. Somehow I need to make my joint rotate but is almost excruciating, my tendonds are very sensitive.

I think I have a lot of adhesions that are really hard to get rid of Im almost convince that I will need surgery, now I just have to convince my doctor. I went to see diferent doctors but becausre MRI ,CT scan Xrays , etc dont show any damage they dont want to do surgery. Im extremely frustrated. Im going to try to convince this other doctor and see if he can help me I will let you know.

I going to check also if I can email you privately because I have so many questions to ask you, trying to see if we suffer the same diagnosis.

Thanks Debra and please keep me posted we will try to help each other.

Have a wonderful rainy day. Im from the BC province, where are you from???

Thanks

6

I was diagnosed with adhesive capsulitis of the hip by my chiropractor who was familiar with the condition. In the two weeks that I have been seeing her I have made tremendous progress. I have also had a few therapeutic massage treatments. She said progress would be slow going and would depend on how diligent I am in doing the exercises she has recommended for me.

7

Hi

I have just seen your good progress with your hip and wonder if you can share the exercises you were prescribed by your chiropractor?  Has your progress been maintained?  Many thanks.

8

You can google exercises for the Piriformis, Hamstring and Adductor muscles. Those are the muscles that I need to street children and strengthen through exercise. Also in the last couple of weeks I have found a new treatment called Intramuscular Stimulation, also known as IMS, which I have tried once and have had a great deal of success with for pain relief. I will be going back for a second treatment this week. The effect of the IMS treatment lasts for about 1 week and then the pain returns. The treatment itself is very similar to acupuncture except that the needles are longer and are inserted deep into the muscle until the tension is released. It is not painful at all. Progress is slow but every week I notice small improvements and I am feeling a little better.

9

"Stretch" not "street children" in my last post.

10

Hi Irau, sorry that I never replied ro your post somehow I didnt received. Im not sure what happen.

Im just seen here you are doing a great progress thrpugh IMS and exercises.

Wondering if you have any progress with the exterior rotation? I just had an injection call hidrodilation about 2 weeks ago, at the begining gave me some sort of pain relief but now im at square one. Im very frustrated with my hip, this condition for sure is debilitating and frustrating.

Wondering how are you doing so far. I hope you found a great progress in all your treatments. I find out that also intramuscular massage is very helpful so im going to try that.

Thanks a lot for your updates.

Good wishes and many blessings to you.

11

You are right about this condition being very debilitating and frustrating. I am getting some rotation both interior and exterior. My physiotherapist said I will make the most progress by just keeping up with the exercises to stretch and strengthen my muscles. It will be a slow journey but I will get to a healthy state eventually.

12

How long you had this condition, is being almost 3 years for me.

Im so happy for you. My problem was and still is I can't do much exercise because I get terrible tendonitis.

Have a great week and please keep in contact. If you find any other treatment that helps, please let me know.

Thanks for your replay

13

I have had this since May/15. It can be painful for me to do the exercises but if I take some ibuprofen and muscle relaxant, it really helps.

14

hi, I tried physio, deep tissue massage, stretching with some relief. One day I woke up with my shoulder completely frozen and in so much throbbing pain. I contacted an osteopath who tried stretching my arm out.  she refered me to a well reknown chiropractor in Canada who specializes in shock wave therapy.  I was desperate so I went. He has a three point program- yes, expensive and not covered- but you are an important investment. he was willing to give %10 off if paying for two sessions at a time. I'm on session 6 after the past 3 weeks.  $75 a time otherwise.  

Sessions last about 15 minutes.  time breakdown consists of- 10 minutes of acupuncture, 5 minutes of intense shock wave therapy which is suppose to break down the scar tissue and encourage the area to start healing again- do not take an anti-inflamatory- and then manipulation and stretching.  First few appointments I was in so much pain.  I declined pain killers bc of the type of work I am in.  I found extra strength tylonel thank goodness worked and the topical Bell roll on pepper cream joint relief worked at night with heat.  I had to practice hanging my arm and swinging it and creeping my hand up a wall.  I could not do either as my arm felt stuck in several places.  Throbbing pain stopped and mild aching only.  Third and fourth session started to be able to reach my arm up and out.  Now on 6th, still some aching bc of some postural issues- almost full movement in arm.  Was recommended to take some joint lubricant - one type has shellfish so I couldn't take it bc of an allergy- I will start taking it tomorrow.  I was told to avoid a cortesone shot as it just masks problem and does not treat actual problem.  I am hoping that this therapy continues to be successful and is not as frequent. I would recommend the investment as it apparently cuts the recovery time in half and helps with the ability to unfreeze shoulder much sooner. I wanted to share bc I did not see much on this.  All the best.

15

Hello!

I also have frozen hip. I'm 37, and I've been dealing with this for over 3 years now.

There was no injury to start all of this, I just started feeling an ache, as if I had pulled my groin muscle, and it started to slowly get worse, and I began losing my range of motion. I was very active, doing workouts every day, so it wasn't due to inactivity either.

I had physical therapy, then a cortisone injection, and I had sugery (arthroscopy) in July. Aside from capsulitis, I also had a small bone spur and a labral tear. I've had a lot of physical therapy since then, and I have not regained any range of motion. AT ALL! The doctor said my leg moved freely during surgery, but I've not been able to get any movement out of it. I can walk fairly normally, but stairs can be difficult depending on the day. My hip has basically no rotation, pretty much no range of motion at all, other than normal walking motion. Like you said before, it's like it's glued to the pelvis.

They gave me another corison shot a couple weeks ago, which did nothing, of course. I have another appointment in December, at which time he'll schedule another arthroscopy for capsulitis. He seems to think it'll work, but I'm hesitant to get my hopes up, as I was sure the first surgery was going to fix it.

It helps to know others are going through the same thing, since the doctors and therapists all talk about how they've never seen a case like mine, or just one or two other cases! I hope you can find relief, I know I'll not stop until something starts to help me. It's super frustrating to have every treatment bring no results, especially surgery!

Good luck with yours!

16

I just passed the 6 month mark with my frozen hip. I have found some relief with a procedure called Intramuscular Stimulation also known as dry needling. It is a temporary pain relief measure but it was good to get a break from the pain. The other thing I found very helpful is taking a Pilates class because Pilates is all about joint motion. Progress for me has been very slow but there is progress. It's very important to keep up with a daily exercise routine that focuses on quads, glutes and hamstrings. I try to stay away from medication but occasionally I will use Motrin Muscle and Body just to get a good night's sleep. Keep us posted on how your next surgery goes.

17

I will!

I'm glad you're finding some relief! I've not heard of Intramuscular stimulation, that may be something to bring up in the future!

Among the workouts I did before all this happened was yoga, and I was still working out when I started losing range of motion, so yoga was getting harder and I was getting worse at doing the poses, despite the fact that I was pushing and trying. I had to stop working out completely after a year because it kept getting tweaked and stabbing with pain during aerobic activity.

I've not found any pain medicine that helps, but luckily I can walk and sleep now without pain (most of the time). I tried 3 different prescription pain meds during recovery from surgery and I don't think any of them worked on me.

I'm just frustrated that I'm supposed to do all these exercises, but I was exercising every day when this all started, and it didn't stop my hip from freezing up!

All I can do is keep going, I guess!

Good luck to you, I hope you can regain movement before too long!

18

Sheri12, why do you say not to take Ibuprofen or I guess other anti inflammatory drugs?  I have had both shoulders freeze, and recently my torso  thanks

19

Long term use of ibuprofen on a regular basis can be very hard on your stomach/liver/kidneys. I try to use it sparingly and only when I really need pain relief like at night so I can get a good night sleep. 

20

Hi again everyone!

I just had my second surgery on the 23rd. The doctor went in and released the capsule again, and cleared out scar tissue. Apparently, there was a LOT of scare tissue for some reason. Also, the small bone spur had started to grow back, so he took that off again.

I've already seen results this time around. I had physical therapy the day after surgery, and I could almost get my knee to my chest and I actually have rotation now, instead of none! So, I feel more hopeful this time around.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!