Hip Center

The Hip Center at the Paley Institute specializes in treating a wide range of hip conditions using advanced surgical and non-surgical techniques. Dr. Feldman leads the team with his extensive expertise in pediatric and adult hip disorders. Dr. McVicker works alongside Dr. Feldman, bringing his specialized knowledge in sports medicine to treat adult patients with hip issues caused by sports injuries. Additionally, Dr. Barnhill and Dr. Minas specialize in joint replacement, offering advanced solutions for patients with complex hip conditions that may require surgical intervention.

Using the latest science and advanced technologies in hip care, our team of orthopedic surgeons in West Palm Beach, Florida, offer patients comprehensive surgical and nonsurgical care treatment options for congenital and developmental problems to sports injuries, trauma and conditions relating to the aging hip.

The hip joint can be affected by many ailments, which lead to pain with activities or even while sitting and sleeping. The Hip Center offers patients advanced comprehensive treatments, from expert physical therapy to stem cell injections from the patient’s own body, to minimally invasive surgery such as arthroscopy, to hip preserving surgeries such as femoral and periacetabular osteotomies, and finally, if needed, hip replacements. The center is designed around a rehabilitation friendly environment that is individually structured to each patient’s recovery needs.

What causes hip pain?

There are many causes of hip pain, affecting those from a very young age to elderly individuals. The hip pain and the causes for it often overlap throughout an affected individual’s life. For example, a child could be born with a congenital hip problem that does not become painful until much later in life. This then becomes hip dysplasia, because the hip socket is shallow and the femoral head is not properly covered by the socket.

The treatment for this is quite specific and depends on age. We can treat it from the age of a newborn child, through kindergarten age, and into adulthood, preserving or saving the hip from requiring a replacement. At older ages, we can replace the hip with excellent resultant function.

What causes hip pain?

Sporting activities are another cause of hip pain, such as golf, baseball, dancing, acrobatics, football, gymnastics, dance, and even yoga; all of these sports can injure the hip in different ways. Some injure it by tearing the inner lining of the hip (called the labrum), some activities, through repeated microtraumas, injure the blood supply to the hip, a condition called avascular necrosis. At the Paley Institute we have extensive experience in treating a variety of hip problems at all ages.

Occasional hip pain that goes away does not ordinarily require treatment. It is chronic hip pain, or pain that recurs again and again that is concerning. If the pain occurs with prolonged activity or prolonged sitting, then this needs to be evaluated.

In the hip joint, there is a ball-and-socket joint that is very sensitive to trauma and very sensitive to the way it grows in terms of muscle development. What does that mean? It means that even in a patient with mild cerebral palsy, for instance, where the muscles are tight and not working synergistically, this can cause the hip to develop abnormally as the child grows.