The Silent Struggle: How HIV Affects Hip Health

Living longer is great, but it also brings new challenges. People with HIV are now facing a higher chance of a painful hip condition called femoral head necrosis. This happens when the ball part of the hip bone dies due to lack of blood. It's not just HIV that's to blame, though. Medicines used to treat HIV and sometimes hormone use can also play a role. People with HIV often get this condition earlier in life and it can happen in both hips at once. Doctors usually use a special scan called an MRI to spot it early. The go-to treatment is a hip replacement surgery, known as total hip arthroplasty. This surgery can be a bit longer than usual, but it's safe and helps patients live better lives after. No major problems have been reported from these surgeries. The tricky part is figuring out why exactly HIV makes this happen. It could be the body's immune response, inflammation, or changes in the hip bone's local environment. Understanding why this happens could lead to better prevention and maybe even new treatments. This is where future research comes in. The current article looks into how common this is among HIV patients, changes in the hip bone, possible causes, safety during treatment, and how effective surgery is. All this is to give doctors a better roadmap for diagnosing, preventing, treating, and understanding this condition.