Surgical Strategies for Achilles Tendinopathy / 대한족부족관절학회지

ABSTRACT

The surgical treatment of Achilles tendinopathy can be considered after the failure of conservative treatment, and the surgical methods may be divided into two groups; treatments for insertional and non-insertional tendinopathy. In the case of insertional tendinopathy, debridement including tendon and calcification of the diseased lesion, reattachment of the tendon, and calcaneal ostectomy of the Haglund lesion are the primary treatments. If reattachment is not possible, reconstruction should be performed by other methods such as tendon transfer. As a result of surgery for insertional tendinopathy, there is an improvement in the pain and function after surgery, but there are some patients whose pain does not completely disappear. Some residual pain may persist; therefore, the overall success rate of the surgery can be expected to be 80% to 90%. For the patients of non-insertional tendinopathy, conservative treatment through eccentric exercise is the primary treatment, and most of them have reported good results. In case of failure after various conservative treatments, debridement of the diseased lesion and repair of the remaining tendon would be the primary surgical treatments. If the remaining tendon is not sufficient, reconstruction such as tendon transfer should be considered.