Hip bone at a glance
- Also called
- Os coxae
- What it is
- The large irregular bone of the pelvis formed by the fusion of the ilium, ischium and pubis.
- Location
- Lies on each side of the pelvis, joining the sacrum behind at the sacroiliac joint and the other hip bone in front at the pubic symphysis.
- Function
- Transmits body weight to the legs, houses the hip socket (acetabulum) and protects pelvic organs.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA16586 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The three parts meet at the acetabulum and fuse across a Y-shaped (triradiate) cartilage in the teens; sources give roughly 15 to 17 years, earlier in girls.
- Features include the iliac crest, ischial tuberosity and obturator foramen.
- The ilium forms about two-fifths of the acetabulum, the ischium two-fifths and the pubis one-fifth.
Clinical relevance
Pelvic fractures can cause severe bleeding.
Structures next to the hip bone
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Iliacus · muscular
- Gluteus minimus · muscular
- Piriformis · muscular
- Gluteus medius · muscular
- Appendix · digestive
- Obturator vein · cardiovascular
- Gemellus superior · muscular
- Superior gluteal vein · cardiovascular
- External iliac vein · cardiovascular
- Internal iliac artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Hip bone (FMA16586). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.