PRP and orthobiologics in Ladue, MO

I-170 NORTH

Ladue patients get PRP and orthobiologic injections about twenty-two minutes up I-170, at a clinic with a ground-floor entrance. Groin pain that is worse putting on socks is a hip, not a back. It is one of the problems we most often see blamed on the wrong place.

Schedule Now Call (314) 886-5092

Getting here from Ladue

I-170 north to Natural Bridge Road — about twenty-two minutes. Parking at the door and a ground-floor entrance, which matters if stairs are part of the problem.

Where hip pain is actually felt

Hip joint pain is felt in the groin and often the front of the thigh. Sometimes it travels to the knee. It is not felt over the side of the hip, which is where most people point when asked. And it is not usually felt in the buttock.

That one difference sorts a large share of these cases. Lateral (outer) pain is tendon. Buttock pain is more often spine or sacroiliac. Groin pain that is worse when you rotate the leg is the joint itself.

Hip or back? covers how the two are told apart on exam.

The functional tells

Trouble putting on socks and shoes, trouble getting in and out of a car, and pain when turning the leg inward are the practical signs. They point to a stiff joint, not irritated soft tissue.

Those are more useful than a pain score, because they are specific and testable, and they change measurably when treatment works.

The hip that is really the spine

Buttock pain, pain that spreads below the knee, or symptoms that change with back position point away from the hip joint. Those come from the spine, and injecting a hip will not touch them.

Separating the two takes a short exam, and it prevents a common and expensive detour.

Keeping walking

Walking capacity is the single most useful measure of function in this group, and it declines quietly. We record it because it predicts independence better than any imaging finding.

Keeping it is the aim of treatment, not a side effect of it.

Bring someone if the history is long

A companion often remembers what changed and when better than the patient does, especially when the decline has been slow.

They also help with a plan that involves both medication and activity changes. That is a lot to take in at one visit.

What an orthobiologic can do in a hip

Hip osteoarthritis sets out the realistic position. The hip is a deep joint with less space than a knee. That makes accurate placement essential, and it makes image guidance a must, not a nice extra.

The aim is a period of better comfort and function, not reversal. Where the joint has lost its space entirely, replacement is the honest answer, and we say so.

Age is not the deciding factor

What decides whether you are suited is the state of the joint and the state of the person, not the year of birth. A seventy-five-year-old with a preserved joint space and good muscle is a better prospect than a fifty-year-old with neither.

We assess both, instead of using age as a stand-in for either.

Falls, and why this matters more here

Hip pain changes how you walk, shortens your stride, and lowers your confidence to turn. Each of those raises fall risk in an older adult. A fall is often the event that ends independent living.

So treating hip pain at this age is partly fall prevention. The strength work that goes alongside it is not optional.

The evidence, stated plainly

Hip data is thinner than knee data, mostly because accurate placement is harder to standardize. Why the trials disagree.

The ceiling nobody measures

In older adults, the metabolic picture and the muscle picture are the same conversation. Both change what treatment can achieve. The metabolic side.

The other hip diagnosis, and it is not the joint

Pain on the outside of the hip, tender to press, worse lying on that side at night and worse climbing stairs, is usually not the hip joint at all. It is gluteal tendinopathy. That is degeneration where the gluteus medius and minimus attach to the greater trochanter (the bony point on the side of the hip).

It was called trochanteric bursitis for decades, and that name drove a lot of unhelpful treatment. Imaging and surgical series have since shown the bursa is often not the main problem. The tendon is. It is most common in women past fifty. It shows up alongside hip osteoarthritis often enough that a scan showing arthritis does not settle which one is causing the symptoms.

Telling them apart on exam is simple. Joint pain is usually felt in the groin and brought on by turning the leg inward. Tendon pain is felt on the side, and brought on by direct pressure and by standing on one leg.

It matters because the treatments differ. Tendon problems respond to steadily increased loading of the abductors (the muscles that move the leg out to the side). They also respond to avoiding positions that squeeze the tendon — crossing the legs, standing with one hip dropped, sleeping without a pillow between the knees. Repeated corticosteroid into the area does poorly over time and can make the tendon worse.

What Ladue patients ask

My pain is on the side of my hip. Is that the joint?

Usually not. Lateral (outer) pain is usually tendon; the joint sends pain to the groin: the tendon problem.

Am I too old for this?

Age is not the test. Joint space, stability and muscle condition are: who this suits.

Does the injection need imaging?

In a hip, yes. It is deep, and placement by feel is unreliable. That is a large part of why some people report no effect.

How far is it from Ladue?

About twenty-two minutes via I-170, with parking directly outside.