Practical approach to hip pain

Hip pain is a common complaint among patients presenting to outpatient clinics. Stratifying patients based on age, acuity, and location of pain (extra-articular vs intra-articular) can help to aid in appropriate imaging and timely referral to an orthopedic surgeon. A thorough history and an organized physical examination combined with radiographs are usually sufficient to diagnose most hip complaints. If the diagnosis remains uncertain, magnetic resonance imaging, usually with intra-articular gadolinium, is the imaging modality of choice in diagnosing both intra-articular and extra-articular pathologies.