Different types of bursa

[D]

Hi Steve, happy 2026

Just wondering what types of bursitis you would be calling these. I get confused when I start seeing different pockets of fluid. How do you distinguish between subgluteal medius, subgluteal minimis and trochanteric bursa?

Image 1 – I assume at least one of these fluid pockets is troch bursitis..? But what do we call the other one haha
Image 2 – Fluid seen posterior to the posterior glut medius tendon

Thanks!

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Stephen Bird]

These are my rules:

If the fluid is beneath the iliotibial band or the G-maximnus muscle it is in the trochanteric bursa.

If fluid is beneath the gluteus medius tendon not is the sub- gluteus medius bursa.

If fluid is beneath the gluteus minimus tendon not is the sub- gluteus minimus bursa.

So as you can imagine the trochanteric bursa is really large and most fluid I can allocate as trochanteric bursa fluid. I always consider that the trochanteric bursa has “saddle bags” where the fluid accumulates in gravity dependant pockets. If it is anterior it is under the iliotibial band and superficial to the gluteus medius muscle. If it is posterior it is between the super-posterior facet tendon of gluteus medius and the deep to the gluteus maximus muscle belly. Either way it is all trochanteric bursa. This is also why the trochanteric bursa is sometimes called the sub-maximum bursa.

I think trochanters burial fluid is very common and I don’t see fluid in the other locations very often.

Steve.

[Author]

Posts