During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Limping. These may include a physical examination or other medical tests. Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
Why: If there is a history of trauma, this would suggest a fracture, sprain, torn ligament or tendon.
Why: e.g. from age 4 to age 8 need to consider Perthes' disorder or transient synovitis of the hip. From age 10 to age 15 need to consider Slipped upper femoral epiphysis (SUFE). After the age of 40 need to consider a variety of diagnoses including sciatica, osteoarthritis and fractures.
Why: may help determine risk of overuse injuries such as stress fractures, shin splints.
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse your condition. These may include:
Why: e.g. thigh, calf, shin, hip, knee, foot or ankle. If deep and very localized and not generalized must consider joint pathology, bone tumor, fracture or rarely infection; if superficial must consider muscular pain.
Why: may suggest osteomyelitis, cellulitis, spinal cord infection.
Why: e.g. may be a long history of back pain, back pain radiating down into the buttocks and legs, weakness, burning, numbness in legs, may be associated with bowel and bladder symptoms if severe.
Why: Morning stiffness classically occurs in Rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory arthropathies (such as ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome, psoriatic arthritis).
Why: Pain originating from disorders of the knee may radiate to the hip joint and pain from the hip joint may be referred to the thigh and knee.
Why: must consider septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis.
Why: may indicate inflammation, bursitis or bone tumor.
Why: e.g. may present from age 4-8 with an aching hip, walks with a limp, sometimes may be bilateral. Occurs in males: females in a ratio of 4:1.
Why: e.g. may present in a child from age 4-8 with a sudden onset of hip pain and limp. There may be a history of trauma. The child can usually walk (some may not).
Why: e.g. may present in a child from age 10-15 with a limp, irritability of hip on most movements and knee pain. Most common in the oversized and undersexed such as the obese pre-pubertal boy. May be bilateral in 20 %.
Why: e.g. presents usually after age 50, may be bilateral usually starting in the one hip and following in the other, insidious slow onset. At first pain is worse with activity and relieved by rest, then later get night time pain and pain after resting. Hip stiffness , especially after rising is a feature. Walks with a limp with the leg deviated inwards towards the other leg and the foot slightly turned outwards.
Why: e.g. usually have a dull ache in the buttock but can be referred to the groin or posterior aspect of the thigh. Pain may be unilateral or bilateral. May have a heavy aching feeling in the upper thigh. May be due to ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome, psoriatic arthritis, enteropathic arthritis (due to Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis), infection such as tuberculosis, osteitis condensans ilii, osteoarthritis or trauma.
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