1. Excellent Clinical Outcomes and Rapid Return to Activity Following In-Office Needle Tendoscopy for Chronic Achilles Tendinopathy.
- Author
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Butler JJ, Randall GW, Schoof L, Roof M, Weiss MB, Gianakos AL, and Kennedy JG
- Abstract
Purpose: To assess outcomes following Achilles in-office needle tendoscopy (IONT) for the treatment of chronic Achilles tendinopathy (cAT) at a minimum 12-month follow-up., Methods: A retrospective case series was conducted to evaluate patients who underwent Achilles IONT for cAT between January 2019 and December 2022. Inclusion criteria were patients ≥18 years of age and clinical history, physical history, and magnetic resonance imaging findings consistent with cAT who did not respond to a minimum of 3 months of conservative management for which each patient underwent Achilles IONT and had a minimum 12-month follow-up. Clinical outcomes were evaluated using the Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Achilles and visual analog scale scores. Patient satisfaction was measured at the final follow-up visit with a 5-point Likert scale., Results: Twelve patients (13 Achilles) with a mean age of 50.9 ± 14.6 years were included in the study. The mean follow-up time was 26.3 ± 6.3 months. The mean Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Achilles scores improved from a preoperative score of 35.6 ± 5.9 to a postoperative score of 83.6 ± 14.1 ( P < .001). The mean visual analog scale score improved from a preoperative score of 6.6 ± 1.0 to a postoperative score of 1.3 ± 1.7 ( P < .001). There were 10 patients (83.3%) who participated in sports activities before the IONT procedure. Within this group, 9 patients (90.0%) returned to play at a mean time of 5.9 ± 2.6 weeks. The mean time to return to work was 4.2 ± 1.2 days. Patients reported an overall positive IONT experience with a mean rating scale of 4.5 ± 0.9., Conclusions: This retrospective review demonstrated that Achilles IONT for the treatment of cAT results in significant improvements in subjective clinical outcomes and a low complication rate together with high patient satisfaction scores at short-term follow-up., Level of Evidence: Level IV, therapeutic case series., Competing Interests: The authors report the following potential conflicts of interest or sources of funding: J.G.K. is a consultant for Arteriocyte, In2Bones, and 10.13039/100007307Arthrex and receives financial support from the 10.13039/100014852Ohnell Family Foundation, Mr Winston Fischer, and Tatiana Rybak. All other authors (J.J.B, G.W.R. L.S, M.R., M.B.W., A.L.G.) declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Full ICMJE author disclosure forms are available for this article online, as supplementary material., (© 2024 The Authors.)
- Published
- 2024
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