Your gluteal tendons are the tough fibres that connect your gluteal muscle to your hip bone. A tendon injury may seem to happen suddenly, but usually it is the result of many tiny tears to the tendon that have happened over time.
Causes
The most common onset of gluteal tendinopathy is due to poor hip and gluteal muscle control that leads to overstressing of the gluteal tendons, causing pain and hip-pelvis instability.
Continued hip instability can cause you to walk or run with poor control, which causes you hip bursa to become under friction load, leading to trochanteric bursitis.
Symptoms
Gluteal tendinopathy usually causes lateral hip pain, muscular stiffness, and loss of strength in the hip muscles.
The pain may get worse when you use the tendon eg running or hopping.
You may have more hip pain and stiffness during the night or when you get up in the morning.
Pain is often worse when you lie on your affected hip.
The lateral hip may be tender, red, warm, or even swollen if there is inflammation of the hip bursa.
Treatment
Procedural options for chronic tendon dysfunction include regenerative-type injections (such as platelet-rich plasma [PRP] that can theoretically provide long lasting pain relief and improved function by stimulating the body’s own natural healing response. There is some evidence that needling the tendon alone can stimulate bloodflow and healing. A procedure called “Tenex” can be used as well which is a nonsurgical procedure involving debridement of the tendon under ultrasound.