Yes, hip braces exist and come in several designs depending on what you need them for. They range from rigid post-surgical devices that lock your hip in a specific position to flexible compression wraps you can wear during everyday activities. Which type makes sense depends on whether you’re recovering from surgery, managing arthritis pain, or dealing with hip instability.
Main Types of Hip Braces
The most common medical hip brace is the hip abduction brace. It holds your thighbone securely in the hip socket and keeps your hips and knees separated at a set angle. These are typically prescribed after hip surgery or a serious injury to prevent the joint from moving in ways that could disrupt healing. They’re rigid, bulky, and not something you’d wear casually, but they serve a critical stabilization role during recovery.
Hip-knee braces combine support for both joints. A soft band or sleeve wraps around your thigh and connects to a hip component, aligning and supporting both areas simultaneously. These are useful when instability affects the entire chain from hip to knee, which is common after certain fractures or reconstructive procedures.
Compression-style hip braces are the lightest option. They wrap around the upper thigh and pelvis to provide gentle support, increase blood flow, and reduce swelling. You’ll find these marketed for arthritis, muscle strains, bursitis, and general hip soreness. They don’t restrict movement the way abduction braces do, which makes them practical for daily wear.
Hip Braces for Arthritis
If arthritis is what brought you here, a hip brace can help in a specific way. Research on people with mild-to-moderate hip osteoarthritis found that bracing allowed them to move faster during turns while walking without increasing the load on the hip joint. The brace also limited the hip’s rotational range of motion, which matters because arthritis pain often spikes when the joint reaches the outer edges of its movement. By keeping the hip within a comfortable arc, the brace essentially prevents you from hitting those painful endpoints during normal activities like turning corners or pivoting.
That said, a hip brace won’t reverse arthritis or replace other treatments like exercise, weight management, or physical therapy. It’s a tool for making movement more comfortable, particularly during activities that involve twisting or changing direction.
What Hip Braces Are Used For
The core purpose of any hip brace is stabilizing your hip and pelvic area after trauma or during a condition that makes the joint unstable or painful. Common reasons people use them include:
- Post-surgical recovery: after hip replacement, labral repair, or fracture fixation, an abduction brace prevents dangerous movements while tissues heal
- Hip dislocations: a brace keeps the femoral head seated in the socket during the weeks after a dislocation
- Osteoarthritis: compression wraps or soft braces reduce pain during movement
- Muscle strains and tendinitis: compression braces support the hip flexors, groin, or outer hip while soft tissue heals
- Bursitis: gentle compression can ease swelling around the greater trochanter (the bony point on the outside of your hip)
How Hip Braces Are Sized
Getting the right fit matters more for hip braces than for most joint supports, because the hip sits at the intersection of your pelvis, lower back, and thigh. A poorly fitting brace can slip, dig into your skin, or fail to provide meaningful support.
For medical-grade braces, sizing involves three measurements. The pelvic section is measured around your pelvis at or just below your waist, roughly at navel level, though the exact spot depends on your body shape. Thigh cuffs are measured at the lower thigh, just above the knee. Uprights, the rigid or semi-rigid bars that connect the hip and knee sections, are measured from your waist to the middle of your kneecap.
Over-the-counter compression wraps are simpler. Most use waist and thigh circumference to determine sizing (small, medium, large). If you’re between sizes, going slightly larger and tightening the straps tends to work better than squeezing into a smaller size, which can restrict circulation.
Comfort and Skin Care
Hip braces sit against areas where skin folds and sweats, so irritation is a real concern with extended wear. Keep your skin dry before putting the brace on. If you’re wearing a post-surgical abduction brace for weeks, check your skin daily for redness, pressure marks, or raw spots, particularly along the inner thigh and around the waist.
You should be able to bend your knee without the brace pushing into the back of your leg. If it does, the thigh cuff is positioned too low or the straps are too tight. Loosen everything, reposition the brace, and tighten again from the hip section downward. A brace that’s constantly uncomfortable or leaves marks isn’t just annoying; it usually means it’s not doing its job correctly either, because the support isn’t landing where it should.
Where to Get One
Post-surgical and medical-grade hip braces are typically provided by your orthopedic team or a certified orthotist who custom-fits the device. These aren’t the kind of thing you order online and figure out yourself. Compression-style hip wraps, on the other hand, are widely available at pharmacies, sporting goods stores, and online retailers without a prescription. Prices for over-the-counter options generally range from $20 to $80, while prescription abduction braces can cost several hundred dollars and are often covered by insurance when medically necessary.