[Morphology and biomechanical properties of tendons and ligametns]

ABSTRACT

Tendons and ligaments are much prone to different types of injuries and hence pose serious orthopaedic problems in man and all species of animals. Regardless of age, or level of activity, every human being or animal is in some danger of tendinous or ligamentous injury even during its daily routine activity. However, the incidence of tendon injury is higher in certain sections of the human population such as athletes and similarly in certain species of animals like race horses. The treatment of these ailments advocated so far is mainly aimed to restore the functional and structural integrity of the damaged tissue in the shortest possible time. The different therapies tried so far have not proved ideal. The basic knowledge on the morphological, biochemical and biomechanical aspects of normal, load bearing tissues are not adequately available and thus a large gap still exists in our present knowledge of normal tendons structure and their functions. This article is therefore, aimed to present the information on tendon and ligament's morphology by light and electron microscopy, biochemical constitute, arid biomechanical properties of normal tendon, to provide a base line to study the repair mechanisms of injured tendons and ligaments