It perforates the external oblique muscles, descends over the iliac crest in front of the lateral cutaneous branch of the iliohypogastric nerve, and is distributed to the skin of the front part of the gluteal muscles, some of its filaments extending as low as the greater trochanter of the femur.
42.
It then descends in the interval between the greater trochanter of the femur and tuberosity of the ischium, accompanied by the sciatic and posterior femoral cutaneous nerves, and covered by the gluteus maximus, and is continued down the back of the thigh, supplying the skin, and anastomosing with branches of the perforating arteries.
43.
The muscle passes out of the pelvis through the greater sciatic foramen, the upper part of which it fills, and is inserted by a rounded tendon into the upper border of the greater trochanter behind, but often partly blended with, the common tendon of the obturator internus and superior and inferior gemellus muscles.
44.
The upper three give off cutaneous nerves which pierce the aponeurosis of the latissimus dorsi at the lateral border of the erector spinae muscles, and descend across the posterior part of the iliac crest to the skin of the buttock, some of their twigs running as far as the level of the greater trochanter.
45.
These bands leave the pelvis through the lesser sciatic foramen and unite into a single flattened tendon, which passes horizontally across the capsule of the hip-joint, and, after receiving the attachments of the superior and inferior gemellus muscles, is inserted into the forepart of the medial surface of the greater trochanter above the trochanteric fossa.
46.
This bursa is at the top, outer side of the femur, between the insertion of the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles into the greater trochanter of the femur and the femoral shaft . It has the function, in common with other bursae, of working as a shock absorber and as a lubricant for the movement of the muscles adjacent to it.
47.
The risks of infection and blood clots are always present, and Ganz and his colleagues cite complications such as heterotopic ossification ( new bone formation around the hip ), nerve injuries, failure of the greater trochanter to heal back properly, persistent pain following the formation of scar tissue ( outpatient procedure ( i . e . no need to stay in hospital overnight ).
