Greater trochanteric pain syndrome
What is greater trochanteric pain syndrome?
Greater trochanteric pain syndrome or lateral hip pain is a common hip condition that causes pain over the outside of your hip. The cause for these symptoms can be due to either an injury to the area or from overload to the soft tissues that lie around the buttock and outside of the hip region.
This condition used to be called Trochanteric Bursitis because it was thought that the pain was coming from an inflamed bursa (a small fluid filled sac) that lies over a bony part of your leg bone. However, recent research suggests that most cases of pain on the outside aspect of your thigh/buttock muscles is due to small injuries to the nearby muscles or tendons.
Pain is felt on the outer side of the hip that may also travel down the outer side of your thigh. These symptoms can be exacerbated or triggered by side lying, crossing your legs, sitting in low chairs and walking or running.
Treatment for lateral hip pain
Physiotherapy helps to optimise the soft tissue health of your lateral hip, through manual therapy and a specific and personally tailored exercise program.
We can advise on activity modification strategies, help manage any contributing factors such as issues with your back or hip joint, and help address any biomechanical issues.
Our physiotherapy treatment may include:
- Joint mobilisations to reduce joint stiffness
- Frictioning tendon to promote healing and improve mobility
- Myofascial and deep tissue release for muscle tightness
- Trigger point release
- Acupuncture and dry needling to reduce pain and muscle tightness
- Ultrasound to reduce inflammation and promote healing / TENS for pain relief
- Kinesiology taping and strapping for support of joints and muscles
- Muscle energy techniques
- Individualised exercise programme incorporating strengthening, stretching and proprioception (PhysioQinetics Youtube Channel)
- Sport-specific rehabilitation
In some cases, pain and symptoms may persist despite conservative management. In these circumstances, some individuals may benefit from a steroid injection into the tissues of the lateral hip.