Bursitis
Whether you’re at play or hard at work, if you repetitively stress or overuse the areas around your body’s joints, you might eventually create a painful inflammation called bursitis.
There are more than 150 bursae in the human body. These relatively small, fluid-filled sacs cushion and lubricate pressure points between your bones, muscles, and tendons near your joints. Bursae are designed to help your joints move with ease. When bursitis occurs, the bursa becomes inflamed. And when this inflammation occurs, any movement is painful.
The areas most often affected by bursitis are the joints in your elbow, shoulders, or hips. But bursitis can also occur by the knee, heel, or in the base of the big toe. Fortunately, most cases of bursitis will disappear within a few weeks with proper treatment, but recurrent flare-ups of this disorder may be common and extremely frustrating.
Treatment
If the bursitis is not infectious, the physician may simply inject the bursa with a corticosteroid to help reduce the inflammation. Results for this procedure last for varying lengths of time. To avoid potentially serious complications, these injections are usually given no more than three times a year, at least one month apart.
If the bursitis is infectious, the problem bursa will be drained with a needle. The physician will then prescribe antibiotics to be taken orally. However, if the infection is extreme, or does not respond to the prescription antibiotics, or the patient’s immune system is weakened, the patient may be admitted to a hospital for IV antibiotics. Fortunately, most causes of infectious bursitis can usually be effectively managed at home. |
