• Pain, erythema, swelling around bursae that lie between muscles, tendons and bony prominences
• Usually due to chronic trauma (professional athletes in shoulders, pre- and infrapatellar bursae of those who kneel); rheumatoid arthritis
• Rarely associated with infection, gout
• Associated with cysts, fluid and loose bodies
• Chronically inflamed bursa may develop extensive calcification
• Subdeltoid bursitis: degeneration of muscle/tendon in shoulder rotator cuff, followed by deposition of calcium in necrotic collagenous tissue, which stimulates inflammatory reaction

• Common sites: shoulder, knee, elbow and hip
• Infrequent sites: interspinous, ischio gluteal, retrocalcaneal

• 18 year old woman with interspinous bursitis (J Bone Joint Surg Br 2004;86:1062)
• 45 year old man with subacromial bursitis related to HIV infection (Braz J Infect Dis 2010;14:645)

• Varies based on cause of bursitis and changes in bursa
• Includes aspiration, antibiotic irrigation, incision and drainage (for abscess), excision (for thickened bursa)

Elbow

Knee

Foot

• Thickened, erythematous and shaggy bursal wall with fibrinous exudates

• Chronic inflammation, scarring

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