Repair of the achilles tendon rupture: a functional comparison of three surgical techniques

A retrospective comparison of three surgical procedures for the acute treatment of closed ruptures of the Achilles tendon is presented: 1) open repair, 2) a percutaneous technique, and 3) a combined mini-open and percutaneous technique. The authors compared the results of 52 tendon ruptures, including 15 open repairs, 15 percutaneous repairs, and 22 combined repairs, with minimal follow-up of 12 months. The authors evaluated the parameters of strength, performance, use of shoes, time of returning to work, range of ankle motion, calf circumference, pain, ability to perform 20 toe-raises on each side, and MRI findings. In comparison to the uninjured leg, the strength of the involved extremity was 74% in the patients with an open repair, 88% in patients with a percutaneous repair, and 92% in the combined mini-open and percutaneous procedure. The combined mini-open and percutaneous repair gave significantly better results than the other surgical procedures. On MRI, the area of the posterior calf of the injured leg, in comparison to the contralateral uninjured leg was 82% in open repair, 81% in the percutaneous procedure, and 91% in combined mini-open and percutaneous procedure. These differences were found to be statistically significant (p < .01). On the basis of their results, the authors prefer to perform the combined percutaneous and mini-open repair of Kakiuchi for the repair of acute Achilles tendon ruptures.