Does it feel like your hip is constantly in pain whenever you're walking or standing, or difficulty lying down on the painful side? If so, then it's possible you have something called "trochanteric bursitis". Dr. Gary at Pinnacle Acupuncture has been seeing an uptrend lately in his patients where all of the ones complaining of hip pain have pointed to the exact same spot and complain of similar things. With his palpation skills, he even feels similarities between those patients and it feels like inflammation at the hip where the bursae would be. In most hip pain cases, acupuncture can be beneficial for people who are dealing with this pain, especially those with trochanteric bursitis.
Trochanteric bursitis is inflammation of the bursae in the trochanteric region of the hip. Bursae can be described as the human body's shock absorbers because of how they act as pillows for important load-bearing joints, such as the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. Hip bursitis usually appears insidiously due to overuse, but it can also be caused by direct injury. It presents with pain over the lateral hip that is worse during activities such as running, climbing stairs, or getting out of a car. Most patients with hip bursitis are unable to lie down on the affected side and could wake up during sleep if they roll onto it. Due to the location of it, it could refer pain downwards to the lateral knee. There are three bursae in the trochanteric region of the hip that need to be assessed and treated if there is bursitis present. In most hip bursitis cases that Dr. Gary has seen, at least two of the three bursae are inflamed. He uses acupuncture and massage therapy for these cases and he has gotten great results.
There is one case that Dr. Gary will mention from time to time to his future hip bursitis patients. At his previous workplace, there was this middle-aged female patient who could not walk for more than 10 minutes because the pain in her hip was excruciating. She was referred to him from another acupuncturist at the same location. Dr. Gary palpated the area that the patient was pointing to and he felt these three hard, fairly large marbles in the patient's hip. He inserted the acupuncture needles into these marbles as best as he could and it felt like he was needling a brick wall due to how inflamed this area was. He saw that the needles formed a triangular formation, which is important for later. After some research, he came to the conclusion that the patient was dealing with trochanteric bursitis. The area looked identical to the area that the patient was feeling pain and the bursae form a triangle, the exact formation of the needles that Dr. Gary put in. After the acupuncture was done, he would end the session with a quick 3-5 minute deep tissue massage in the area. This was done over a period of several months due to vacations and holidays on both sides. By the end, this patient, who initially was unable to walk for more than 10 minutes, can walk for more than 2-3 hours and continue to do that on a weekly basis. The worst pain she feels is a small bit of soreness in the hip, but that's it. She is one of Dr. Gary's biggest success stories that he is proud and honored to be her acupuncturist.
If any of this sounds familiar to you or you are currently dealing with it, then we highly recommend that you come in for a free consultation and get acupuncture for it. Dr. Gary has a lot of experience treating this specific condition and so far, it works very well for his existing patients.
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