Do We Really Know How to Treat Gluteal Tendinopathy?

When it comes to managing gluteal tendinopathy, the most common treatments do not come with a high level of clinical outcome evidence, according to a new study.

Gluteal tendinopathy is the most common form of lower limb tendinopathy. It presents with varying severity but has the potential to inflict debilitating lateral hip pain in patients.

The most common treatment methods are physical therapy/exercise, injections with or without needle tenotomy, shockwave therapy and surgical repair.

The study, “Outcome measures in the management of gluteal tendinopathy: a systematic review of their measurement properties,” was published online on April 8, 2022, in The British Journal of Sports Medicine.

For their study, the researchers evaluated several outcome measures for gluteal tendinopathy. They conducted a systemic review of articles in databases including Cochrane, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, PEDro, CINAHL, SPORTDISCUS in December 2021.

Overall, the research team found six studies which provided Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment—Gluteal Tendinopathy (VISA-G) scores. One study provided Hip outcome Scores—activities of daily living and Sport.

The VISA-G studies provided moderate-quality evidence of sufficient construct validity (known group) and responsiveness (pre-post intervention), low-quality evidence of sufficient reliability, measurement error, comprehensibility and insufficient construct validity (convergent), and very low-quality evidence of sufficient comprehensiveness, relevance and responsiveness (comparison with other outcome measures).

In addition, the HOS(ADL) and HOS(Sport) had very low-quality evidence of sufficient reliability, relevance and insufficient construct validity and comprehensiveness. The HOS(ADL) had very low-quality evidence of sufficient comprehensibility and insufficient measurement error. The HOS (Sport) had very low-quality evidence of inconsistent comprehensibility and sufficient measurement error.

“Rigorously validated outcome measures for gluteal tendinopathy are lacking. The VISA-G is the preferred available option to capture the disability associated with gluteal tendinopathy,” the researchers reported.

Study authors include Anthony M. Nasser, Angela M. Fearson, Alison Grimaldi, Bill Vicenzino, Rebecca Mellor, Trevor Spencer and Adam Ivan Semciw, all of La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.