A large percentage of patients who come to physiotherapy suffer from arthritis of the hip. Treatment proceeds with the assumption that they can be helped towards, among other things, pain relief and a better quality of life, and possibly even put off surgery. However there is only minimal scientific evidence to support this hypothesis. A search of the literature reveals that only a few controlled clinical studies examine physiotherapy management and its effectiveness in patients with hip joint disease. Those studies that were published concerned themselves mainly with the effectivity of diverse surgical procedures and their follow-up treatment, as well as pharmaceutical treatment approaches. We conclude that there is a crying need to fill this gap with appropriate scientific studies.

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