Bursitis vs Tendinitis: How Doctors Tell Them Apart and Why the Treatment Differs

She has one hand on the kitchen cabinet and the other kneading the outside of her shoulder, the way you rub a bruise you cannot see. The pain arrived slowly over a month of hanging curtains, then stopped her sleeping on that side. A friend says bursitis. Her brother, who runs, insists it is tendinitis. Both sound plausible, and both sound like the same thing wearing a different label.

They are not the same thing, and the question of bursitis vs tendinitis turns out to matter more than a naming quarrel. The two conditions live in the same neighborhoods of the body, get triggered by the same repetitive jobs, and ache in overlapping places. Yet one involves a slippery cushion that has swollen, and the other a rope that has frayed. That distinction shapes what a clinician looks for in the exam room, which tests are worth ordering, and why one problem is usually rested while the other is carefully worked.

Two structures, two problems: what bursitis vs tendinitis actually means

Start with the anatomy, because the whole distinction rests on it. A bursa is a thin sac lined with a slick membrane and holding a film of lubricating fluid; it sits where a tendon, muscle or skin slides over bone, so that the moving part glides instead of grating. The Cleveland Clinic puts the count at roughly 150 bursae in the adult body, clustered around the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and heels. Most of the time you never notice them, which is exactly the point.

A tendon is a different sort of tissue altogether: a dense band of collagen that transmits the pull of a muscle onto a bone. Where a bursa is a cushion, a tendon is a cable. Cables tolerate tension but dislike being yanked the same way thousands of times, or loaded suddenly beyond what they have adapted to.

Bursitis, then, is a bursa that has become irritated and filled with more fluid than it should hold. The sac swells, the gliding surface roughens, and every movement across it hurts. Tendinitis, in its strict sense, is a tendon or the sheath around it that has become inflamed, usually near where it attaches to bone. Mayo Clinic notes that the shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee and heel are the tendons most often involved.

Both conditions produce pain that worsens with movement and eases with rest, which is why the labels get swapped so freely. But a swollen cushion and an overworked cable are different failures, and the body signals each in its own way once you know what to listen for.

Why bursitis and tendinitis get confused so often

The confusion is not carelessness. Bursae exist precisely because tendons need something to slide over, so the two structures sit millimeters apart. Irritate one and the neighbor often protests too. In the shoulder, the subacromial bursa lies directly on top of the rotator cuff tendons, and MedlinePlus describes shoulder bursitis and rotator cuff tendinitis as frequently occurring together. A clinician examining that shoulder may find both structures tender, which is why some diagnoses are written as a pair rather than a single word.

The triggers overlap just as much. Repetitive overhead work, a sudden increase in training, prolonged kneeling, leaning on an elbow for hours: each can inflame a bursa, a tendon or both. Age adds a shared risk, since tendons lose some of their elasticity over decades and bursae become more reactive to friction. Conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout and diabetes raise the odds of both problems, according to Mayo Clinic.

Then there is the vocabulary problem. Patients hear tendinitis, tendonitis, tendinopathy and tendinosis and reasonably assume four diseases. Tendinitis and tendonitis are simply two spellings of the same word. Tendinopathy is the umbrella term for any painful tendon disorder, and tendinosis describes tendon tissue that has degenerated without much active inflammation. Bursitis, mercifully, has only one spelling, but it too splits into non-infectious and infectious types, and that split changes the treatment entirely.

So the overlap is real, and coexistence is common. The task for a doctor is not to force a single label onto every ache but to work out which structure is driving the pain right now, because that is the one that dictates the plan.

How do I know if I have bursitis or tendonitis? What doctors ask and examine

The honest answer is that you often cannot know from symptoms alone, and the two are sometimes present together. What you can do is notice the clues a clinician will want, because the history does much of the diagnostic work before any test is ordered.

Location is the first clue. Bursitis pain tends to sit over a bony prominence: the point of the elbow, the outside of the hip, the front of the kneecap, the tip of the shoulder. Press on that spot and it hurts, and if the bursa is superficial you may see a soft, squishy swelling that moves under the skin. Tendinitis pain follows the line of the tendon instead, usually within a finger’s width of where it meets bone, and swelling is less obvious because most tendons lie deep.

Provocation is the second clue. A tendon hurts when the muscle it belongs to contracts against resistance, so a clinician will ask you to push, lift or grip while they hold the limb still. If that reproduces your pain sharply, the tendon is suspect. A bursa hurts when it is compressed or when tissue slides across it, so pain that arrives with direct pressure, with lying on that side at night, or at a particular point in the arc of movement points toward the sac.

Timing is the third. Tendon pain often feels stiff first thing in the morning and warms up with gentle activity before returning after exertion. Bursal pain is more constant and more sensitive to pressure than to effort. The NHS notes that bursitis frequently makes the area feel warm, and warmth combined with redness moves the conversation quickly to the possibility of infection.

Bursitis vs tendinitis at a glance

Laid side by side, the differences look cleaner than they feel in a sore shoulder, but a summary helps organize what a clinician is weighing. Treat this as a map of tendencies rather than a checklist for diagnosing yourself; the exam and, when needed, imaging carry the decision.

Feature	Bursitis	Tendinitis
Structure involved	Fluid-filled sac cushioning bone from soft tissue	Collagen cord joining muscle to bone
Where it usually hurts	Over a bony point (elbow tip, outer hip, kneecap, shoulder tip)	Along the tendon, close to its bony attachment
What provokes it	Direct pressure, lying on the area, sliding movement over the sac	Contracting the muscle against resistance, stretching the tendon
Visible swelling	Common when the bursa is near the skin (elbow, knee)	Uncommon; tendon thickening is felt more than seen
Warmth and redness	Possible; marked warmth raises concern for infection	Rare
Typical course	Often settles within a few weeks with rest, per the NHS	Often improves within two to three weeks of self-care, per the NHS; longer if chronic
Core of treatment	Remove the pressure or friction; drain if very swollen or infected	Reduce the offending load, then rebuild tendon tolerance through graded exercise

Two rows deserve emphasis. The warmth row is a safety issue, because an infected bursa is a different medical problem from an irritated one and needs prompt assessment. The treatment row is the practical heart of the matter: a cushion recovers when you stop crushing it, while a cable recovers when you retrain it. Confuse the two and you either rest a tendon into weakness or load a bursa into a larger swelling.

How is bursitis diagnosed, and when is imaging or a needle test needed?

Most bursitis is diagnosed without a single test. Mayo Clinic describes the standard path: a conversation about what you were doing when the pain began, then a physical exam that presses on the suspect sac and moves the joint through its range. When the story and the exam line up, that is usually enough, and the same is true for uncomplicated tendinitis.

Tests enter the picture when something does not fit. X-rays cannot show a bursa or a tendon, but they can rule out a fracture, a bone spur or arthritis that might be masquerading as soft-tissue pain. Ultrasound is the workhorse for the soft tissues themselves: it shows a distended bursa as a dark pocket of fluid and a troubled tendon as a thickened, irregular band, and it can be done while the joint is moving. MRI is reserved for cases where the picture stays murky, where a tendon tear is suspected, or where surgery is being considered.

The needle test matters most in bursitis. If a bursa is swollen, warm and red, a clinician may draw fluid from it with a fine needle, a procedure called aspiration. The fluid is examined for bacteria, for the crystals of gout, and for signs of inflammation. This single step separates septic bursitis, which needs antibiotics chosen by the treating team, from the far more common non-infectious kind, which does not. Blood tests are sometimes added to look for infection or an inflammatory arthritis.

Tendinitis rarely needs aspiration because tendons hold no fluid pocket to sample. That asymmetry is itself a diagnostic clue: a problem you can drain is almost always a bursa.

What triggers a bursitis flare-up, and what does early bursitis feel like?

People with a bursa that has flared once often ask what set it off, hoping to avoid a repeat. The pattern is usually mechanical. MedlinePlus lists repetitive motion and sustained pressure as the leading causes: kneeling to lay tile, leaning an elbow on a desk through a long shift, throwing overhead, or lying for hours on one hip on a firm surface. The sac is being rubbed or squeezed more than it can lubricate, and it responds by producing extra fluid.

A single hard knock can do the same. A fall onto the point of the elbow or the front of the knee can inflame a bursa within a day or two, sometimes producing a swelling the size of a golf ball with surprisingly little pain. Systemic conditions add a second route: gout can deposit crystals inside a bursa, rheumatoid arthritis can inflame its lining, and Mayo Clinic notes that diabetes raises the risk of infection in bursae that sit close to the skin.

The early stage is subtle. Rather than a clear injury moment, most people describe an ache that appears at the end of a repetitive task and fades overnight, then starts arriving earlier each day. The spot becomes tender to touch before it hurts on movement. Sleeping on that side becomes uncomfortable, then impossible. If the bursa is superficial, a soft puffiness may appear before any real pain, which is why elbow bursitis is sometimes noticed in the mirror before it is felt.

Recognizing that arc is useful because the earliest phase responds most readily to simply removing the pressure. Waiting until the swelling is tense and hot narrows the options and raises the chance that infection has joined in.

Is tendinitis really inflammation? Why the answer changes treatment

The word tendinitis ends in the suffix that means inflammation, and for a tendon that has been irritated over days or a few weeks, that description holds. Cells of the immune system arrive, the tendon sheath swells, and the area is genuinely inflamed. Rest and anti-inflammatory measures make sense in that window.

The picture changes when tendon pain drags on for months. Microscopic studies of long-standing tendon pain, summarized on Cleveland Clinic and Harvard Health pages, show something different: disorganized collagen fibers, an increase in fragile new blood vessels, and very few inflammatory cells. The tendon is not on fire; it is worn and poorly repaired. Clinicians call this tendinosis or, more loosely, tendinopathy, and many now avoid the word tendinitis for chronic cases precisely because it implies a treatment that no longer fits.

This is where bursitis and chronic tendon pain diverge most sharply. A bursa that is inflamed recovers when friction stops; there is nothing structural to rebuild. A degenerated tendon does not recover by being left alone, because collagen reorganizes in response to load, not to rest. Prolonged inactivity tends to leave the tendon weaker and the pain unchanged.

The practical consequence is that a physical therapist will often prescribe exercise for a painful tendon that would seem counterintuitive for a swollen bursa: slow, controlled movements that lengthen the tendon under tension, progressed gradually over weeks. The tendon is asked to do work, deliberately, so that it remodels. Meanwhile the same therapist may tell someone with hip bursitis to stop the very exercise that is compressing the sac. Same clinic, opposite instructions, both grounded in what the tissue is actually doing.

What actually happens in treatment: the shared first steps

Before the paths split, they run together for a while, and most people with either problem will recognize the opening moves. The NHS describes the same self-care foundation for both bursitis and tendinitis: rest the area from the movement that provokes it, apply a cold pack wrapped in a cloth, and avoid the specific activity that started the trouble.

Rest here means relative rest. Someone with elbow bursitis does not need to immobilize the arm; they need to stop leaning on the joint and cushion it when sitting. Someone with wrist tendinitis may keep typing but change the angle of the keyboard and take breaks. Complete disuse stiffens joints and weakens muscle, and neither condition is helped by that.

Cold is used for its effect on pain and swelling. The NHS suggests that for tendinitis a wrapped ice pack can be applied for up to twenty minutes at a time every two to three hours in the early days, always with a layer of fabric between ice and skin to avoid a cold injury. Compression sleeves or a simple elastic wrap can help a swollen bursa feel supported, though they should never be tight enough to tingle.

Medicines from the class known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are commonly used for short-term pain in both conditions. They work by damping the chemical signals that drive inflammation and pain. Whether they are appropriate, in what form and for how long, depends on a person’s stomach, kidneys, heart and other medicines, and that judgment belongs to the prescribing clinician, not to a magazine article.

Mayo Clinic advises that if these measures have not eased tendinitis symptoms within a few days, or the pain interferes with daily activity, it is time to be assessed rather than to keep guessing.

Why the treatment differs: pressure relief for bursae, gradual load for tendons

After the first week or two, a clinician who has made the distinction will steer the two conditions in different directions, and understanding why helps people stick with a plan that can feel counterintuitive.

For bursitis, the guiding question is what is pressing on or rubbing across the sac. The fix is usually mechanical. A gel pad for kneeling, a change in sleeping position with a pillow between the knees for hip bursitis, a modified throwing motion, an ergonomic adjustment at a desk: each removes the friction that keeps the bursa producing fluid. Physical therapy for bursitis focuses on stretching tight structures that compress the sac and strengthening the muscles that hold the joint in a position where the bursa is not pinched. If the swelling is large or the fluid is suspected to be infected, the bursa may be drained with a needle. A corticosteroid injection into the bursa is sometimes offered when pain persists, because the sac tolerates it and the medicine settles inflammation directly at the source.

For tendinitis, the guiding question is how much load the tendon can currently tolerate and how to increase it. Therapy is built around progressive exercise, often starting with slow lengthening contractions and advancing toward the sport or task that caused the problem. Stretching addresses stiffness; strengthening addresses the collagen. Braces or straps that change where force is applied along the tendon may be used for elbow or knee tendons.

Injections are handled with more caution around tendons. Mayo Clinic notes that repeated corticosteroid injections can weaken tendon tissue and raise the risk of rupture, and that they are generally not recommended for tendon pain that has lasted more than about three months. A treatment that suits a swollen sac can, in the wrong tissue, do harm.

Bursitis or tendonitis in the shoulder, elbow and knee: how location tips the balance

Because bursae and tendons pair up at every major joint, a few locations deserve their own notes. The shoulder is the classic case. The subacromial bursa lies between the top of the rotator cuff tendons and the bony arch above them. Raise the arm and both are squeezed under that arch, a mechanism doctors call impingement. Pain when lifting the arm out to the side, especially between roughly shoulder height and overhead, and pain lying on that shoulder at night can come from either structure, and MedlinePlus notes they are commonly inflamed together. Weakness on resisted lifting leans toward the tendon; tenderness at the very tip of the shoulder with a relatively strong arm leans toward the bursa. Imaging, when ordered, often shows both.

The elbow separates the two more cleanly. The olecranon bursa sits directly under the skin at the point of the elbow, so bursitis there produces a visible, soft lump, sometimes dramatic, often with little pain unless infected. Tendinitis at the elbow, by contrast, hurts on the bony knobs at the sides of the joint, where the forearm tendons attach; pain with gripping or lifting a kettle points to the tendon on the outer side, the pattern people call tennis elbow. A lump means bursa; pain without a lump usually means tendon.

At the knee, the prepatellar bursa in front of the kneecap swells with prolonged kneeling and produces the same kind of visible puffiness as the elbow. Patellar tendinitis hurts just below the kneecap, worsens with jumping or stairs, and shows little swelling. The NHS flags both elbow and knee bursae as the ones most likely to become infected, because a scrape or cut in the skin over them gives bacteria a short route in. That is why warmth and redness at either site earn prompt attention.

Who is usually offered injections or surgery, and who is asked to wait

Most people with either condition never see a needle beyond aspiration and never see an operating room. Both MedlinePlus and Mayo Clinic describe rest, activity change and physical therapy as the mainstay, and escalation only when those fail or when something specific demands it.

A corticosteroid injection into a bursa is typically considered when pain has persisted despite several weeks of conservative care, or when the pain is severe enough to block the exercises that would otherwise help. A clinician weighs blood sugar control, skin condition over the site, and whether infection has been ruled out, since injecting steroid into an infected bursa would make matters worse. Aspiration alone, without steroid, is often chosen first when the sac is very tense.

For tendons, the threshold is higher and the timing matters. Injections near a tendon are generally reserved for shorter-duration problems with a clear inflammatory component, and Mayo Clinic cautions against repeated injections and against their use in tendon pain that has become chronic. People with long-standing tendinopathy are usually asked to commit to a structured loading program first, because that is the intervention with the best support for changing the tissue itself. Other procedures, such as needling the tendon under ultrasound guidance or injecting a person’s own concentrated platelets, are offered in some settings; the evidence for them is mixed, and a careful clinician will describe them as options with uncertain benefit rather than proven fixes.

Surgery sits at the far end. For bursitis it usually means removing a bursa that keeps refilling or is chronically infected. For tendons it means repairing a tear or removing degenerated tissue. Both are uncommon, both are considered only after conservative care has been given a fair trial, and both are decisions that belong with the treating team after imaging and discussion.

What the following weeks usually look like

Timelines here are ranges drawn from public health sources, not promises, and they assume the trigger has genuinely been removed. Recovery stalls most often not because the diagnosis was wrong but because the kneeling, leaning or throwing quietly continued.

For non-infectious bursitis, the NHS says symptoms usually settle within a few weeks of rest and pressure relief. The first week is typically about pain and tenderness fading; visible swelling in an elbow or knee bursa can lag behind and take longer to flatten, and a residual soft bump sometimes lingers after the pain is gone. Pain lying on the affected side is often the last symptom to leave. If the bursa was drained, the area may feel bruised for a few days, and clinicians usually ask people to keep the site clean and watch for warmth or redness.

For acute tendinitis, the NHS suggests most people feel better within two to three weeks of self-care, with the caveat that returning to the provoking activity too early commonly restarts the cycle. Chronic tendinopathy runs on a slower clock. Structured loading programs are usually prescribed over several weeks to a few months, and the early phase can feel discouraging because the exercises themselves produce some discomfort. Physical therapists generally accept mild pain during and shortly after exercise as long as it settles by the next day and does not climb week over week.

Mayo Clinic notes that symptoms that fail to ease within a few days of self-care, or that keep disrupting daily activity, are reason enough for assessment rather than continued waiting. Follow-up visits, when arranged, tend to check whether the pain pattern has shifted, whether swelling has receded, and whether strength on resisted testing is returning, since those are the markers that tell a clinician the right structure is being treated.

What people often get wrong about bursitis and tendinitis

The first misconception is that they are interchangeable words for the same ache. They describe two different tissues, and the treatment for one can be unhelpful or even harmful for the other. Resting a chronically painful tendon completely tends to leave it weaker; loading a swollen bursa with the exercise that compresses it tends to keep it swollen.

The second is that swelling means something is badly torn. A large, soft lump on the elbow or knee is alarming to look at, but a distended superficial bursa is often less serious than a tendon that hurts with no swelling at all. Size of the lump and severity of the problem are poorly matched.

The third is that all tendon pain is inflammation and should be treated with anti-inflammatory measures indefinitely. As Cleveland Clinic and Harvard Health describe, long-standing tendon pain is mostly degenerative, and the evidence favors graded exercise over medicines or prolonged rest for that stage.

The fourth is that a steroid injection is a neutral first step for any joint pain. It is a reasonable tool for a stubborn bursa; around a tendon it carries a documented risk of weakening the tissue, and Mayo Clinic advises against repeated injections there.

The fifth is that warmth and redness are just part of inflammation and can be waited out. Over an elbow or knee bursa, those signs may mean infection, which needs assessment and sometimes antibiotics rather than a cold pack.

The last is that the condition is finished once pain fades. Both problems return readily if the underlying friction or overload is unchanged. The lasting fix is usually a change in how the joint is used, not the medicine or the needle.

Questions to ask your care team

A short appointment goes further when you arrive knowing what you want to understand. These questions are meant to open a conversation, not to challenge a diagnosis, and the answers will depend on your joint, your history and your goals.

• Which structure do you think is causing my pain, the bursa or the tendon, and how confident are you? Is it possible both are involved?
• Do I need any imaging or a fluid sample, and what would change if the result came back a particular way?
• Is there any sign of infection or gout in this joint, and what should I watch for at home?
• What specific activity or position is most likely keeping this going, and how should I modify it rather than stop entirely?
• If I am being referred for physical therapy, is the goal to offload the area or to build tolerance in it? How will I know the exercises are working rather than making things worse?
• If an injection is being discussed, what are the risks in this particular location, and how many would you consider reasonable?
• What is a realistic timeline for improvement, and at what point should I come back if things have not changed?
• Are any of my current medicines or medical conditions relevant to this problem or to its treatment?
• Once this settles, what would you suggest to reduce the chance it comes back?

Writing down the answers, or bringing someone who can, helps more than most people expect. Clinicians generally welcome a patient who wants to understand which tissue is being treated and why, because that understanding is what keeps a home program on track between visits. Every decision about testing, injections or referral remains with the team caring for you.

When to call your doctor

Most bursitis and tendinitis is uncomfortable rather than dangerous, and a period of self-care is reasonable. Some signs, though, mean the problem needs assessment promptly rather than patience. Mayo Clinic and the NHS list warning features that overlap for both conditions, and a few are specific to one.

Seek care the same day, or urgently if it is after hours, if the area over a joint becomes hot, red and increasingly swollen, particularly at the elbow or knee, or if you develop a fever, chills or feel generally unwell alongside the joint pain. These can signal an infected bursa, which is treated differently from an irritated one and can worsen quickly. The same urgency applies to a joint you suddenly cannot move, to severe pain that arrives abruptly, and to a snap or pop followed by weakness or a visible gap or change in shape near a tendon, since that pattern can indicate a tendon rupture.

Arrange a routine appointment if pain has not eased after two to three weeks of self-care, the range the NHS gives for expected improvement in tendinitis, or if a swelling keeps returning after it settles. New numbness or tingling, pain that wakes you repeatedly, bruising or a rash over the joint, or pain that appears while taking a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, a class Mayo Clinic links to tendon injury, are also reasons to be seen rather than to wait.

People with diabetes, a weakened immune system or a history of gout or rheumatoid arthritis should lower their threshold for calling, because both infection and inflammatory flares are more likely and can be harder to distinguish at home. None of these signs confirms a diagnosis on its own. They are the signals that the question of bursitis vs tendinitis should be settled in an exam room rather than at the kitchen counter.

Frequently asked questions

What is the main difference between bursitis and tendonitis?

Bursitis affects a bursa, the small fluid-filled sac that cushions bone from tendon or skin, while tendinitis affects the tendon itself, the cord that joins muscle to bone. Bursitis tends to hurt with direct pressure and can produce visible swelling; tendinitis hurts when the muscle works against resistance and rarely swells noticeably. The two often occur side by side.

How do I know if I have bursitis or tendonitis?

You often cannot tell for certain without an examination, and both may be present at once. Clues that point to bursitis include tenderness over a bony point, a soft lump, and pain lying on the area. Clues that point to tendinitis include pain along the tendon during resisted movement and morning stiffness that warms up. A clinician confirms the picture by examining and, when needed, imaging the joint.

What triggers a bursitis flare-up?

Most flares are mechanical: repeated kneeling, leaning on an elbow, overhead throwing, or lying on one hip on a hard surface, all of which rub or compress the sac. A direct blow can trigger one within a day or two. Gout, rheumatoid arthritis and infection are less common causes, and MedlinePlus notes repetitive motion and sustained pressure as the leading triggers.

What does stage 1 bursitis feel like?

Early bursitis usually feels like an ache that arrives at the end of a repetitive task and fades overnight, then starts earlier each day. The spot becomes tender to touch before it hurts on movement, and lying on that side grows uncomfortable. If the bursa is close to the skin, a soft puffiness may appear before any significant pain.

Do bursitis and tendonitis go away on their own?

Often, yes, if the activity that caused them is changed. The NHS says bursitis usually settles within a few weeks of rest and pressure relief, and acute tendinitis within two to three weeks of self-care. Both return readily when the friction or overload continues, and chronic tendon pain typically needs a structured exercise program rather than time alone.

Does tendonitis go away faster with rest or with exercise?

It depends on how long it has been present. Recently irritated tendons benefit from a short period of relative rest and cold packs. Tendon pain lasting months is mostly degenerative, and evidence summarized by Cleveland Clinic and Harvard Health favors gradual, guided loading exercise over prolonged rest, because collagen remodels in response to load.

Can you have bursitis and tendinitis at the same time?

Yes, and it is common, particularly in the shoulder. The subacromial bursa lies directly on top of the rotator cuff tendons, and MedlinePlus notes the two are frequently inflamed together when the arm is raised repeatedly. A clinician will try to identify which structure is driving most of the pain, since that guides the initial plan.

How is bursitis diagnosed by a doctor?

Usually through history and physical examination alone, according to Mayo Clinic. Tests are added when the picture is unclear: X-rays to exclude bone problems, ultrasound to visualize the swollen sac, and MRI in complicated cases. If the bursa is warm and red, fluid may be drawn with a needle and checked for bacteria or gout crystals.

Why are steroid injections used for bursitis but avoided for some tendinitis?

A bursa tolerates a corticosteroid injection well, and the medicine settles inflammation directly in the sac. Tendons are different: Mayo Clinic notes repeated steroid injections can weaken tendon tissue and raise the risk of rupture, and they are generally not recommended for tendon pain lasting more than about three months. The prescribing clinician weighs these risks for each site.

Is elbow swelling bursitis or tendinitis?

A soft, visible lump at the point of the elbow is almost always olecranon bursitis, because that bursa sits just under the skin and fills with fluid when irritated. Tendinitis at the elbow hurts on the bony knobs at the sides of the joint with gripping or lifting and produces little or no swelling. Warmth or redness over the lump should be assessed promptly for infection.

References

• Bursitis – MedlinePlus
• Tendinitis – MedlinePlus
• Bursitis – NHS
• Tendonitis – NHS

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.