Free Essay Sample on Orthopedic Tendon Ruptures

The Achilles tendon is a tendon located in the back of the leg. It connects the soleus muscles and gastrocnemius in the insertion point of the calcaneus calf. The Achilles' tendons allow for pushing off while running, walking, and jumping. Achilles injuries can occur in several areas of your body, but the most commonplace in the tendon-muscle junction. It is the area joining calf muscles with the tendon. The injury affecting the area can quickly heal on their own, but the area around the leg muscles takes slow to heal - less blood supply to accelerate healing.

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Tendons are soft fibrous tissues connecting body muscles to the bones. They are muscular tissues that can experience a force, which is equivalent to your body weight, such as while jumping or running. Tendon strains (small and stretches and partial tears) are typical injuries and are usually treatable but non-surgically using RICE technique (icing, resting, elevation and compression), and by physical therapy ((Carmont et al., 2017). Occasionally, an acute sports trauma or injury can put must stress on the tendon area to the extent of breaking it completely. This is what is referred to as tendon rupture. It is highly recommendable to perform surgery for reconnecting the damaged area.

Severe pain is the obvious symptom of the condition. A person may also hear popping or snapping sound immediately after incurring the injury. A rapid bruise in the area of injury is another immediate and common sign of tendon rupture. These symptoms are followed by a person's inability to bear weight (on the ankle or leg, for instance), restriction, and weakness of movement in the affected part of the damaged body. Long-lasting, chronic Achilles tendon disorder ranges from overuse injury causes degeneration or inflammation to acute traumas, including Achilles tendon rupture (Sharma et al., 2017). Pain in the heel or the back of the leg can be a result of problems along with the heels. This pain can be caused by bursitis retrocalcaneal, sometimes called tendon Achilles bursitis.

Tendon injuries are common and can give rise to significant disabilities, healthcare costs, pain, and loss of productivity-a wide range of harmful mechanisms exist, giving rise to tendon rupture or tendinopathy. For instance, tears can happen in the tendon and can be overloaded (for example, during high impact event or high speed) or knife injury (lacerated). Tendinosis or tendinitis can occur in tendons that can happen in the overuse condition or tendons exposed (intrinsic tissue degeneration) or swimmer training regimen. The healing potential of the pathologic or torn tendon differs but depending on the location of the tissue. (rotator cuff vs. Achilles) and the local environment (extra synovial vs. intrasynovial) (Odah et al., 2017). Although healing of the injury occurs to a differing degree, the healing of the ruptured tendon usually follows a systematic healing course, including the earliest inflammatory phase, followed by the remodeling and proliferative phase. Various treatment approaches have been in a bid to help in improving tendon healing, including cell-based therapy and growth-factor and rehabilitation protocols.

How Rehabilitation Plays a Role in the Pathology

Ruptured tendon healing, following a surgical operation, usually progresses through a short-lived inflammatory phase, lasting for one week. This phase is followed by the proliferative phases lasting for two to three weeks, which is then followed by the remodeling phase lasting for months. On the course of the inflammatory phase, the vascular permeability can increase, with the inflammatory cells entering the healing period. The cell produces a number of growth factors and cytokines (Robertson et al., 2019). They result in the proliferation and recruitment of macrophages and tendon resident fibroblasts. During the remodeling and proliferative phases of healing, proliferate fibroblasts start producing, orient deposits, and fibrillar crosslink collagens. Evidentially proven research shows that inflammation modulation in the earliest stages following the injury can improve the healing process. It is important to note that the regulation of inflammation is beneficial to repairing the damaged tissues, particularly where persistence or excessive inflammation can be damaged.

Further research for the ruptured tendon

It is recommendable that future research on rehabilitation strategies should be aimed at balancing the negative outcome arising from immobilization (joint stiffness, increased adhesion, retarded tissue maturation repair. Moreover, the particular functional and anatomic requirements of tendon healing must be taken into account when determining the optional rehabilitation scenario.

References

Carmont, M. R., Silbernagel, K. G., Nilsson-Helander, K., & Karlsson, J. (2017). Free Hamstring Open Augmentation for Delayed Achilles Tendon Rupture. In The Achilles Tendon (pp. 85-88). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Oda, H., Sano, K., Kunimasa, Y., Komi, P. V., & Ishikawa, M. (2017). Neuromechanical modulation of the Achilles tendon during bilateral hopping in patients with unilateral Achilles tendon rupture, over one year after surgical repair. Sports Medicine, 47(6), 1221-1230.

Sharma, B. B., Dewan, S., Bhardwaj, N., & Aziz, M. R. (2017). Atypical Presentation of Achilles Tendon Rupture: MRI Evaluation. International Journal of Clinical & Medical Images, 4(3).

Robertson, A., Godavitarne, C., Bellringer, S., Guryel, E., Auld, F., Cassidy, L., & Gibbs, J. (2019). Standardized virtual fracture clinic management of Achilles tendon ruptures is safe and reproducible. Foot and Ankle Surgery, 25(6), 782-784.