Hip osteoarthritis causes pain that limits normal daily activities, becoming increasingly debilitating. In these patients, the radiographic confirmation of articular degenerative aspects represents an important diagnostic element.
The absence of radiographic abnormalities in patients with hip pain rules out the arthritic disease, demonstrating a strong negative value of the predictive radiological imaging.
The conventional radiology of the pelvis and hip after surgery, if correctly performed, is able to assess the correct positioning of the fixation, the eventual asymmetries of the lower limbs and the femoral off-set, the heterotopic calcifications, the mobilization and the rejection of the prosthetic devices, representing the best survey technique.
Both in hip osteoarthritis that in the study post-surgery, ultrasound, MRI and CT are especially limited in their diagnostic power, for the presence of artifacts from metallic prosthesis and the inability to assess the prosthesis-bone interface or prosthesis-cement-bone interface.