Is Hip Bursitis A Real Thing?

A bursa is a fluid filled sack that is typically found between a bone and a muscle, tendon or ligament. You wouldn't want these soft tissue structures rubbing against bone too much as this could be damaging, so evolution developed us with a cushion between them and the bone, which we call a bursa. 

In medical terms, anything with -itis at the end of it means "inflammation of". 

So, bursitis literally translate to "inflammation of the bursa". 

Hip bursitis just identifies which bursa is "inflammed", in this case the trochanteric bursa. 

You can see in the picture below where the trochanteric bursa is. Due to it's lateral nature, a tell tale sign of hip bursitis is tenderness to the boney part of the outside of your hip (the greater trochanter) and pain with lying on that side. 

The problem with the diagnosis of bursitis is that it essentially eliminates the other potential cause of someone's pain...the tendons in the same area. 

You can see in the next picture how many tendons attach to the outside of the hip where the bursa is located, making it very possible that any number of these tendons are causing pain and actually not the bursa. 

The only true way to identify if the bursa is the sole cause of someon's pain is to perform an ultrasound guided injection to the bursa with an anesthetic. If pain goes, away it's the bursa. If not, it's something else.

 If that sounds like a total waste of time and resources, you'd be right!

The reality of hip bursitis is that it's a generic diagnosis that has since been replaced with "greater trochanteric pain syndrome". 

This new diagnosis essentially acknowledges that any number of structures around the outside of the hip (greater trochanter) can be causing pain. 

The good news?

Whether it's the bursa or the glute tendons doesn't matter, the same interventions will improve the pain!

Outside of avoiding pressure to the area, the best course of action to reduce greater trochanteric pain is to load the glute tendons, which is accomplished through strengthening exercises.

As with any tendon loading exercises, discomfort is OK but pain is not.

For some ideas on ways you can load your glute tendons, check out our YouTube playlists and select the playlist for 'lateral (outside) hip pain'. 

And of course, if you ever want to take the guess work out of your rehab and have some help with figuring out the best course of action instead, click here to book your FREE phone consultation!