Dutch researchers tracked patients with hip pain to determine the disease progression of osteoarthritis of the hip.
The study, published in the December issue of Arthritis Care & Research, found 12 percent of the patients underwent total hip replacement after three years and 36 percent after six years.
Sita M.A. Bierma-Zeinstra and Annet M. Lievense of Erasmus Medical Center, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, included 227 patients who visited their general practitioners in 1996 because of hip pain.
Patients were questioned and underwent a physical exam. Three years later, the same patients underwent follow-up to have their osteoarthritis assessed. After another three years, a comparable follow-up was carried out using a survey that was mailed to the patients.
The researchers' report earlier analysis of their data didn't indicate an association between age and progression of hip pain but the current study did find the two were connected.
"The difference might be attributed to selection for surgery: if a patient is relatively young, physicians tend to postpone surgery to avoid the risk of re-surgery after 10 to 20 years," the authors said in a statement.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
