Two minimally invasive surgical treatments for Achilles tendon rupture: Achillon versus sponge forceps / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare 2 mini-invasive surgical treatments,Achillon versus sponge forceps,for acute Achilles tendon rupture.Methods Between December 2010 and January 2015,35 patients with acute Achilles tendon rupture were treated at our department.They were 32 males and 3 females,with an average age of 36.4 years (range,21 to 64 years).The interval between injury and operation was 1 to 13 days (average,3.2 days).Sixteen of them were treated by Achillon while 19 by sponge forceps.The 2 groups were compatible with no significant differences in general clinical data (P ＞ 0.05).Rehabilitation was carried out 4 weeks after immobilization with brace.American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot scoring system was used to evaluate the function of the affected foot at the last follow-up.The 2 groups were compared in terms of surgery time,hospital stay,AOFAS score,decrease in leg circumference,complications and rerupture rate.Results All the patients were followed up for an average of 9.6 months (from 6 to 19 months).There were no significant differences between the Achillon and sponge forceps groups regarding average AOFAS score (91.8 ± 4.4 versus 93.2 ± 5.8),surgery time (38.3 ± 13.2 min versus 42.5 ± 9.8 min),hospital stay (3.9 ± 1.5 d versus 4.1 ± 1.6 d),or decrease in leg circumference (2.1 ±0.5 cm versus 2.3 ± 0.3 cm) (P ＞ 0.05).No re-ruptures or sural nerve lesion was observed in either group.One case of delayed wound healing occurred in each group.Conclusions Both Achillon and sponge forceps can lead to limited complications and a very low rate of re-rupture in surgical treatment of acute Achilles tendon rupture.Compared with the Achillon technique,sponge forceps may have the advantages of simplicity and lower cost.