Frozen Hip, Capsulitis, and VA Disability Ratings for Your Hurting Joints

Are you a veteran whose hip feels like it’s clicking or popping when you move? Is this joint painful to rotate and impacting your range of motion?

You might not think much of your hip joint when it’s functioning and feeling as it should. But if it hurts when you walk or when you sit, you could be suffering from a condition known as hip capsulitis, or frozen hip. There are myriad causes that could lead to this issue, including your time spent in military service. 

Today, we’re taking a closer look at the specifics of frozen hip, the symptoms, and the associated VA disability ratings. If you’re a veteran suffering from hip capsulitis, it’s important to understand the facts while we seek the compensation you deserve. 

What is Hip Capsulitis?

Your hip joint is critical to everyday life. On a minute-by-minute basis, you use it to perform a variety of activities, from sitting comfortably to standing and walking. 

If your hip suddenly feels as though it isn’t working like it used to, this could be a sign of hip capsulitis. 

This is an inflammatory physical condition that affects the soft tissue lining your hip joint. In time, it can lead to progressive fibrosis within your hip capsule. This causes telltale tightness, or stiffness in your hip region.

In general, the basic condition of capsulitis can affect a few different areas in your body, including your toes and shoulder. When stiffness overtakes the latter joint, it’s known as adhesive capsulitis or frozen shoulder.

Symptoms of Frozen Hip

This condition is marked by a sharp, debilitating pain that originates near your hip joint. Usually, you’ll feel the majority of this pain in your groin, although it can also radiate to the buttocks for some people. 

As a result of this pain, the range of motion in your hips could be severely impaired.

While this pain is uncomfortable to deal with, it’s important to understand the other, more severe symptoms of a frozen hip that require immediate medical treatment.

These include:

• Chills
• Lightheadedness
• Fever
• Skin rash around your hip
• Outward, visible changes to your hip joint
• Severe pain in your groin or upper thigh

These are more serious conditions associated with a frozen hip that signal a more acute issue could be at play. 

These are much more serious symptoms that might show you have more than just hip capsulitis.

There are a number of back injuries that can earn VA disability even years later. One of our veteran’s disability lawyers explains some of those injuries and their ratings in this video:

Causes Behind Hip Capsulitis

Sometimes, a frozen hip is caused by a short-term injury. For instance, you might have fallen recently and experienced a labral tear. This means you tore the cartilage that covers your hip socket, called your labrum.

Or, you might notice that your hip flexor muscles feel particularly tight after a tough workout, causing you discomfort in the days that immediately follow. 

In either case, injuries and strains usually lead to temporary pain and resolve following proper treatment and rest. When this occurs, you’ll usually go through three distinct phases on your way to recovery. These include:

• Acute pain that affects your movement
• Freezing sensation, or a progressive inability to move the joint
• Frozen sensation, marked by pain and significant stiffness
• Thawing sensation, where pain resolves and your range of motion returns

On the other hand, you could also be suffering from chronic hip capsulitis, which causes long-term stiffness in your joint. A few of the most common conditions associated with this issue include:

• Tendinitis (also spelled Tendonitis)
• Fibrous joint buildup
• Osteoarthritis (OA)
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• Ankylosing spondylitis (rare, spine-specific arthritis)
• Some types of bursitis (inflammation around your joints)
• Lyme disease

Research shows that more than 76 million people in the United States currently suffer from some form of hip pain. This is because, as noted above, this issue can be traced back to so many different conditions. 

If you already suffer from any of the above health concerns, you might notice that your hip joint is stiffer than it used to be. Constant wear and tear during active duty can also play a role. 

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The Link Between Joint Issues and Diabetes

If you suffer from diabetes, you’re at a greater risk of developing frozen hip, as well as frozen shoulder and any other form of capsulitis. 

Why is this the case?

Researchers are still looking to determine the direct link, but most agree that diabetes triggers certain symptoms that can cause an onset of the condition later in life. These include:

• Diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage)
• Obesity
• Arterial disease

In many cases, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause behind your frozen hip.

Often, the factors blend into one another. For instance, if you suffer from type 2 diabetes, you’re not only at an increased risk of osteoarthritis, but you could also suffer from obesity. Any or all of these conditions could lead cause your hips to stiffen over time.

Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy VA Disability

How Does a Frozen Hip Impact Your Life?

As mentioned, your hips are critical to your everyday function. When they’re in pain, you could find it difficult to sit in a comfortable position, much less walk or run. It also becomes slow and painful to bend forward, twist, or shift your weight from side to side. 

In general, capsulitis affects all of your normal hip movements, including:

• Flexion
• Rotation
• Circumduction

If you’re a sedentary office worker, the inability to sit for an extended period of time could negatively impact your work performance. In addition, severe hip capsulitis can also make it difficult to drive a car or sleep comfortably at night. 

This joint also plays a critical role in helping you move from a sitting to a standing position. If it’s in distress, you may find it very difficult to transition from one task to the next. 

It may be difficult to get 100% TDIU from one disability, but here one of our VA disability lawyers talks about common disabilities that add up to a 100% combined rating.

VA Disability Rating for Hip Capsulitis

Do you believe that your frozen hip is directly attributed to an injury that you sustained while on active duty? If so, you’re within your rights to request compensation for your pain and suffering. 

The Veteran Affairs Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) rates a variety of musculoskeletal conditions that affect your hip and thigh area. These include, among others, ratings for:

• Hip loss of use or amputation
• Hip replacements
• Limited motion in the hip and thigh
• Shortening of the leg
• Injuries to the hip and thigh bones
• Musculoskeletal diseases

As you might expect, frozen hip usually fits under the “Limited motion in the hip and thigh” category. The different factors that the VASD will consider when reviewing your disability application include:

• The degree of pain you’re experiencing
• How limited or unlimited your motion is
• The presence of any bone damage
• The presence of pre-existing diseases and conditions, such as diabetes

Here is a video explaining how the VA combined ratings table works from one of our Veterans Disability Lawyers.

Limited Motion in the Hip or Thigh

If a service connection is made, the VA can rate your frozen hip under a variety of Diagnostic Codes. In general, VA disability law rates conditions of the hip and thigh under the following codes:

• 5250: Hip, ankylosis
• 5251: Thigh, limitation of extension
• 5252: Thigh, limitation of flexion
• 5253: Thigh, impairment
• 5254: Hip, flail joint
• 5255: Femur, impairment

Absent of any underlying conditions, a frozen hip would most likely be coded under 5250 or 5254.

Under Code 5250, the term “ankylosis” is defined as the stiffness of any joint due to bone rigidity and abnormal adhesion. For Code 5254, a flail joint is any joint that is experiencing a loss of function, causing an inability to stabilize the joint in any plane without exceeding a normal range of motion. 

If the VA rates your condition under Code 5250, they will measure the following factors and assign associated disability ratings:

• Unfavorable or extremely unfavorable ankylosis, causing your foot to not reach the ground and necessitating the use of crutches: 90% rating
• Intermediate ankylosis: 70% rating 
• Favorable hip flexion at an angle between 20 degrees and 40 degrees and slight adduction (or abduction): 60% rating 

If the VA rates your condition under Code 5254, you have one primary option: Flail joint of the hip: 80% rating.

Similar or Related Service-Connected Disabilities

In addition to seeking a direct VA rating for your frozen hip, you may also link it as a secondary service connection. 

A secondary connection is any disability that is proximately attributed to or exacerbated by a service-connected condition, illness, or injury. While these conditions might not be the very first concerns that come to mind as you complete your VA disability paperwork, they can be integral to the process. 

If you can prove that the condition is caused or aggravated by a condition that the VA already deems to be service-connected, you could expand the benefits you receive. 

We’ve already mentioned that hip capsulitis is directly associated with a host of service-connected conditions. Among others, these include:

• Diabetes
• Arthritis (osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis)
• Tendonitis
• Bursitis

Any of the above conditions can place excess strain and tension in your hip joint. As time goes by, this pressure can cause that joint to wear down to the point of severe pain.

While you might be able to clearly attribute your secondary connection to a more ongoing, overarching health issue, the key is convincing the VA to see it that way. This is where a clear, concise, and complete application package is required. 

Applying for VA Benefits: The Process to Expect

It’s no secret that applying for VA disability benefits isn’t exactly the most simple or straightforward process. That’s why it helps to have a team of experienced lawyers on your side, preferably a group that focuses on helping veterans claim the rights they deserve.

Are you ready to apply for benefits to recoup some of the costs you’ve incurred to treat your frozen hip? If so, you’ll have various different kinds of documents to complete and forms to include.

In addition to your general VA Disability Benefits Application, you’ll also need to attach condition-specific forms, such as the PTSD Application Form and the all-important Nexus Letter.

Getting the Right Forms for Your VA Disability Application

Creating a Nexus Letter to Document Your Frozen Hip

As its name implies, a Nexus Letter is a detailed description of the “nexus” or connection of your military service to the medical condition for which you’re seeking VA compensation.

A Nexus Letter is important whether you’re applying for your condition to be considered as a primary or secondary condition, although the approach will differ slightly.

If you want to establish your hip capsulitis as a primary condition, you’ll be required to detail the exact events that occurred during your time in the military and led to your hip joint pain. For instance, did you experience an injury while in combat that tore or otherwise disrupted that area of your body?

If you want to establish a secondary connection, you won’t be required to show a link between your frozen hip and your military service. However, you will need to explain how it’s connected to another, service-connected disability that you already suffer from, such as diabetes or tendonitis. 

The Nexus Letter is like the missing link to a successful VA disability compensation claim. In this video, one of our veteran’s disability lawyers explains the importance of the Nexus Letter.

Appealing a VA Decision

You did all of the steps required, and the VA still denied your claim. When this happens, it’s important to seek legal counsel as you file an appeal. This process can be wrought with long wait times, complications, and cover-ups. Going into it without guidance could place you right back where you started.

Our team of experienced lawyers can help you navigate these next steps to improve your next outcome, including providing support in the following ways:

• Gathering medical evidence
• Proving a service connection for your physical or mental ailments
• Gathering supporting evidence from physicians, psychologists, and vocational experts
• Helping you determine your effective date

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Find Relief and Support for Your Frozen Hip

If your hip joint feels frozen or locked into place, it can be a crippling condition. Without a full and comfortable range of motion, your lifestyle can take a direct hit. 

Fortunately, the VA can help you cover the costs of any treatments and living expenses that you deal with.

Do you believe that your hip capsulitis is directly linked to your time in the U.S. military? If so, we’ll help you fight for the compensation you deserve. Contact our team today to receive a free legal consultation.