Greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS), also known as trochanteric bursitis, is inflammation of the trochanteric bursa, a part of the hip.
This bursa is situated adjacent to the femur, between the insertion of the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles into the greater trochanter of the femur and the femoral shaft. It has the function, in common with other bursae, of working as a shock absorber and as a lubricant for the movement of the muscles adjacent to it.
Occasionally, this bursa can become inflamed and clinically painful and tender. This condition can be a manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis or of an injury (often resulting from a twisting motion or from overuse), but sometimes arises for no obviously definable cause. The symptoms are pain in the hip region on walking, and tenderness over the upper part of the femur, which may result in the inability to lie in comfort on the affected side.
More often the lateral hip pain is caused by disease of the gluteal tendons which secondarily inflames the bursa. This is most common in middle-aged women and is associated with a chronic and debilitating pain which does not respond to conservative treatment. Other causes of trochanteric bursitis include uneven leg length, iliotibial band syndrome, and weakness of the hip abductor muscles.
Greater trochanteric pain syndrome can remain incorrectly diagnosed for years, because it shares the same pattern of pain with many other musculoskeletal conditions. Thus people with this condition may be labeled malingerers, or may undergo many ineffective treatments due to misdiagnosis. It may also coexist with low back pain, arthritis, and obesity.
Read more about Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome: Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment
Famous quotes containing the words greater, pain and/or syndrome:
“The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.”
—Russell Lynes (b. 1910)
“This horror of pain is a rather low instinct and ... if I think of human beings I’ve known and of my own life, such as it is, I can’t recall any case of pain which didn’t, on the whole, enrich life.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)
“Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others—first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one’s own interests and desires. Carried to its “perfection,” it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)