Since the 1950s the incidence of spontaneous complete rupture of the Achilles tendon has risen steadily, possibly as a result of increased sedentary lifestyles and intermittent participation in recreational sports.1 Today the Achilles tendon is the second most frequently ruptured tendon, and no other tendon suffers complete rupture more often.3 Up to 25% of all cases are misdiagnosed,4-6 with s...

Four patients who developed combined tendon and overlying skin defects following operative repair of ruptured Achilles tendon were presented. Three patients had an infected wound. The average interval from the first operation for repairing the ruptured Achilles tendon and the reconstructive procedure was 46.2 days (range, 5-65 days). All patients were treated with a one-stage operation includin...

BACKGROUND Controversy exists on stretching and warm-up in injury prevention. We hypothesized that warm up has a greater effect on Achilles tendon biomechanics than static stretching. This study investigated static stretching and warm-up on Achilles tendon biomechanics in recreational athletes, in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten active, healthy subjects, 5 males, 5 females, With a mean age of...

Background: Tendon defects remain a major concern in orthopedic surgery because of the limited availability of tendon autografts. Since the extracellular collagen-based matrix derived from porcine small intestinal submucosa (SIS) has been successfully used in repair of many tissues, such as abdominal wall, vessels and bladder, we hypothesized that SIS can be used to repair an experimentally ind...

The Achilles tendon is the most commonly injured tendon in the foot and ankle; injuries commonly are related to sports/athletic activities. Imaging modalities that are used most commonly in the diagnostic assessment of the Achilles tendon include conventional radiography, ultrasonography, and MRI. This article reviews the normal and pathologic imaging features of the Achilles tendon, and highli...

BACKGROUND Chronic tears of the Achilles tendon can result in substantial loss of function. Those tears with a tendon gap of up to 6.5 cm can be treated surgically with use of an autologous peroneus brevis tendon graft. METHODS At an average follow-up period of 15.5 years after the surgery, we examined sixteen of twenty-two patients who had undergone peroneus brevis tendon graft reconstructio...

Recreational running is an activity with multiple reported health benefits for both sexes, however, chronic injuries caused by excessive and/or repetitive loading of the Achilles tendon are common. Males have been identified as being at an increased risk of suffering an injury to the Achilles tendon and as such, knowledge of differences in loading between the sexes may provide further informati...

Calf muscles and Achilles tendon play important roles in functional activities. However, it is not clear how biomechanical properties of the uniarticular soleus (SOL) and biarticular gastrocnemius muscle and Achilles tendon, including the fascicle length, pennation angle, and stiffness, change concurrently post stroke. Biomechanical properties of the medial gastrocnemius (GM) and soleus muscles...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the mechanical properties of the Achilles tendon were correlated to muscle strength in the triceps surae in humans. Twenty-four men and twelve women exerted maximal voluntary isometric plantar flexion (MVIP) torque. The elongation (DeltaX) and strain of the Achilles tendon (epsilon), the proximal part of which is the composite of the gastrocn...

Acute Achilles tendon ruptures are common sports injuries; however, treatment remains a clinical challenge. Studies show a superior effect of early mobilization and full weight bearing on tendon healing and clinical outcome; however, few data exist on structural and biomechanical characteristics in the early healing phase. This study investigated the histological and biomechanical characteristi...