Background: Greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS) is a relatively common diagnosis among the general population.
Objective: We aim to determine the prevalence of GTPS among patients who presented to the spine clinic.
Methods: Medical records of patients who were evaluated in the spine clinic were reviewed over a 12-month period (4/1/2016 to 3/31/2017). Patient demographics, presenting symptomatology, physical examination findings, presence or absence of GTPS, medical imaging findings, and interventions were recorded analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics 23.0 (Chicago, IL). Statistical significance is defined as p < 0.05.
Results: A total of 273 consecutive patients (145 women, 128 men) were evaluated for degenerative lumbar pathologies by a single spine surgeon over the study period. The average patient age was 61.9 years. Overall, there were 138/273 patients (50.5%) with GTPS (Group I), while 135/273 patients (49.5%) did not have GTPS (Group II). There were 73 patients in Group I received trochanteric injection for GTPS treatment and subsequently returned to clinic for follow-up, and there were 36/73 (49.3%) patients reporting improvement in their symptoms after trochanteric injection. There was a statistically significant predilection for presence of GTPS in the female gender (60% vs 32.8%, p = <0.01). There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of low back pain, buttock, thigh or groin pain between the two groups.
Conclusion: GTPS is a very common but often unrecognized or misdiagnosed condition. Accurate diagnosis and differentiation of GTPS from lumbar spinal pathologies are essential in avoiding potential unnecessary spinal procedures.
Keywords: Foraminal stenosis; Greater trochanteric pain syndrome; Lumbar radiculopathy; Lumbar stenosis; Pseudoradiculopathy; Trochanteric bursitis; Trochanteric injection.
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