Bursitis occurs when bursae become inflamed due to repetitive movements and excessive strain on the joints. Other causes include trauma in the joint due to an injury and infection.
It may also become dull and achy over time. Most people with hip bursitis notice that their symptoms become more intense when they sit for a long time or lie on the affected side. Climbing the stairs or getting up from a deep chair can also make hip bursitis pain flare.
Apply ice to reduce swelling for the first 48 hours after symptoms occur. Apply dry or moist heat, such as a heating pad or taking a warm bath. Take an over-the-counter medication, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) or naproxen sodium (Aleve, others), to relieve pain and reduce inflammation.
Acute bursitis usually flares over hours or days. Chronic bursitis can last from a few days to several weeks. Chronic bursitis can go away and come back again. Acute bursitis can become chronic if it comes back or if a hip injury occurs.
Activities or positions that put pressure on the hip bursa, such as lying down, sitting in one position for a long time, or walking distances can irritate the bursa and cause more pain.
Exercise is often prescribed to improve joint pain, so walking could be a vital part of managing your bursitis symptoms.
Pain that doesn't go away
Hip bursitis (trochanteric bursitis) may be a sign of a more serious issue. If you continue to have bursitis pain at the hip that has not improved despite extensive treatment, you may have a tear of a muscle located next to the bursa called the gluteus medius.
Hip bursitis will often get better on its own as long as it is not caused by an infection. To heal your hip bursitis, you will need to rest the affected joint and protect it from any further harm. Most patients feel better within a few weeks with proper treatment.
Avoid any activity or direct pressure that may cause pain. Apply ice or cold packs as soon as you notice pain in your muscles or near a joint. Apply ice 10 to 15 minutes at a time, as often as twice an hour, for 3 days (72 hours). You can try heat, or alternating heat and ice, after the first 72 hours.
The most common causes of bursitis are repetitive motions or positions that put pressure on the bursae around a joint. Examples include: Throwing a baseball or lifting something over your head repeatedly. Leaning on your elbows for long periods.
Bursitis is typically caused by repetitive, minor impact on the area, or from a sudden, more serious injury. Age can also play a role as tendons become less elastic and more susceptible to tearing.
Pain, swelling, and tenderness near a joint are the most common signs of bursitis. Bursitis can be treated with rest and medicines to help with the inflammation.
Turmeric, boswellia, and white willow are three herbs that may reduce inflammation.
Foods that can trigger inflammation may make your pain worse so these are ones to avoid if you can. This includes processed foods (ready meals, sliced meat), caffeine, fizzy juice, sugars (cakes, biscuits etc.), and alcohol.
It's also really important when suffering this type of pain, to avoid sitting with you legs crossed. At least until your symptoms settle down. It's also important that you sit with your hips a little bit higher than your knees to prevent compression of the hips tendons and bursa.
It is essential that you avoid all outer hip and gluteal stretches, during your recovery as this can create pain and limit your progress! You will need to avoid any stretch that takes your knee or your ankle towards your opposite shoulder.
Initially, the pain may be located primarily at the outside of the lower hip. Over time the pain may radiate down the outside of the thigh or to other points in the body, such as the lower back, buttock, or groin, and may extend down the outside of the thigh towards the knee.
Bursa Drainage and Removal
If the bursa is severely damaged, the surgeon may remove the entire inflamed sac. The incision is closed with stitches. Removal of a bursa does not affect the way the muscles or joints work and can permanently relieve the pain and swelling caused by bursitis.
Bursitis is usually a short-term issue that's caused by overusing or putting excess stress on a bursa around one of your joints. It doesn't create long-lasting damage unless you continue to stress the area.
One of the primary reasons that massage is successful in the treatment of non-specific hip pain is that it can decrease the joint inflammation, speed up the healing time of strained muscular tissue and ligaments, relax muscles, and increase blood circulation.
It can be a debilitating condition as it tends to persist in time and recur pain subsides. It is due to inflammation of a fluid-filled sac (bursa) around a part of the hip joint known as the greater trochanter.
Rest: The most important part of treating bursitis is resting your hip while the bursa heals. Rest your hip as much as possible to decrease pain and swelling. Resting will also prevent the bursitis from getting worse.
take painkillers, such as paracetamol or ibuprofen, to ease any pain.