Learn more about the anatomy of the hip using these hip diagrams that will show you the detailed structure of your hip! The hip joint is one of the most important joints in the human body. It allows us to walk, run, and jump. It bears our body’s weight and the force of the strong muscles of the hip and leg. Yet the hip joint is also one of our most flexible joints and allows a greater range of motion than all other joints in the body except for the shoulder. Take a look at the following anatomy diagram below.
You can see in the diagrams that the hip region is located lateral and anterior to the gluteal region (i.e., the buttock), inferior to the iliac crest, and overlying the greater trochanter of the femur, or “thigh bone”. The hip joint is a true ball-and-socket joint. This arrangement gives the hip a large amount of motion needed for daily activities like walking, squatting, and stair-climbing. Understanding how the different layers of the hip are built and connected can help you understand how the hip works, how it can be injured, and how challenging recovery can be when this joint is injured. The deepest layer of the hip includes the bones and the joints. The next layer is made up of the ligaments of the joint capsule. The tendons and the muscles come next. Look at the bones of the hip diagrams below.
The bones of the hip are the femur (the thighbone) and the pelvis. The top end of the femur is shaped like a ball. This ball is called the femoral head. The femoral head fits into a round socket on the side of the pelvis. This socket is called the acetabulum. If a knee or hip joint breaks in an accident or wears out in old age, a surgeon can replace it with a ball-and-socket joint made from metal and plastic and engineered in such a way that it will duplicate the motions of a human joint. Hip replacement was once impossible because, although joints could easily be produced in a laboratory, the human body rejected the materials.
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