Why Do I Limp? Why Does My Leg Feel Short?

Limping means an abnormal gait or walking pattern. Limping may come from a variety of causes such as pain, deformity or shortening of the leg. It can also come from a neurologic cause such as paralysis of some of the muscles in the leg. The major cause of limping in an arthritic hip is pain. A gait that avoids pain is said to be  antalgic. This happens because you attempt to put less weight on the painful hip. You try to spend less time bearing weight on that side.

You may also take shorter steps as you try to minimize the time you put on your bad leg. As you lose movement, your hip becomes stiffer. Your leg may turn inward (internally rotated) or outward (externally rotated) and develop a fixed rotational deformity. Shortening may result from either a flexion contracture of the hip or loss of height as the joint surfaces collapse. Your leg may also feel short if you have spinal problems and your pelvis is tilted.

Thus, an abnormal gait may have more than one component in an arthritic hip. For example, your gait may be described as short leg, flexed hip, antalgic, and rotated. A neurologic problem such as peripheral neuropathy or polio can cause weakness of the muscles of the leg and an abnormal gait.

A neurologic problem may not be directly connected to an arthritic hip, but the result-ant gait problem has to be considered if you are planning total hip arthroplasty. Patients with a bad hip will often have a Trendelenburg gait. This means the body tilts sideways over the bad hip as they attempt to go forward. Using a cane may improve or eliminate this portion of an abnormal gait.