Tendon repair and healing

Tendon connects muscle to bone and functions to transmit muscular forces across joints to stabilize or move those joints. Tendons in the foot and ankle are subject to enormous loads and consequently make up a substantial portion of the body's tendon injuries. Understanding the mechanisms of these injuries requires an understanding of the relative rates of muscle, tendon, osteotendinous junction, and myotendinous junction adaptation. This article provides the practitioner with an overview of tendon anatomy, physiology, healing, and repair and correlates didactic and clinical aspects so that practitioners can better treat patients and get them back to normal functioning as quickly and as close to anatomic and physiologic capabilities as possible.