Bursitis
William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
- Bursitis facts
- What is bursitis?
- What causes a bursa become inflamed?
- What are bursitis symptoms and signs?
- How is bursitis diagnosed?
- What is the treatment for bursitis?
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Bursitis facts
- Bursitis is inflammation of a bursa, a tiny fluid-filled sac that functions as a gliding surface to reduce friction between tissues of the body.
- A bursa can become inflamed from injury, infection (rare in the shoulder), or due to an underlying rheumatic condition.
- Bursitis is identified by localized pain or swelling, tenderness, and pain with motion of the tissues in the affected area.
- Treatment of bursitis is directed toward reducing inflammation and treating any infection present.
What is bursitis?
Bursitis is inflammation of a bursa. A bursa (the plural form is bursae) is a tiny fluid-filled sac that functions as a gliding surface to reduce friction between tissues of the body. There are 160 bursae in the body. The major bursae are located adjacent to the tendons near the large joints, such as the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.
What causes a bursa become inflamed?
A bursa can become inflamed from injury, infection (rare in the shoulder), or due to an underlying rheumatic condition. Examples of bursitis include injury as subtle as lifting a bag of groceries into the car to inflame the shoulder bursa (shoulder bursitis), infection of the bursa in front of the knee from a knee scraping on asphalt (septic prepatellar bursitis), and inflammation of the elbow bursa from gout crystals (gouty olecranon bursitis).
What are bursitis symptoms and signs?
The symptoms of bursitis are directly related to the degree of inflammation present in the bursa. The inflamed bursa can cause localized pain and tenderness. If the bursa is so inflamed that swelling occurs, it can cause local swelling and stiffness, sometimes associated with local redness and warmth. The inflammation can make it painful to support body pressure. For example, hip bursitis can make it difficult to lay on the affected side of the hip. Bursitis in the knee, for another example, can make it painful to lay with the knees touching each other.
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