Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Correspondence: denitsa. The biggest compartment of the musculoskeletal system is the tendons and ligaments.
In particular, tendons are dense tissues connecting muscle to bone that are critical for the integrity, function and locomotion of this system. Due to the increasing age of our society and the overall rise in engagement in extreme and overuse sports, there is a growing prevalence of tendinopathies. Despite the recent advances in tendon research and due to difficult early diagnosis, a multitude of risk factors and vague understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms involved in the progression of tendon injuries, the toolbox of treatment strategies remains limited and non-satisfactory.
This review is designed to summarize the current knowledge of triggers, trails and end state of tendinopathies. Keywords: tendon pathologies, tendinopathy, tendinitis, tendinosis, tendon rupture, risk factors, tendinopathy management.
Tendinopathy, the pathological change in the tendon that can be classified as a failure in homeostatic response of the tendon, is a debilitating condition mainly occurring in the active workplace and in the sports field, which can end in integrant morbidity and disability. This term refers to inflammation of the tendinous sheath and is strictly speaking not a classical tendinopathy in which degeneration is observed within the tendon itself. Finally, spontaneous tendon tears and ruptures without prior symptoms are summarized as tendon injuries [ 2 ] and form the final condition of tendinopathies that failed to heal, thus resulting in loss of the tendon continuum.
So far, there is no reliable method to detect early tendinopathy and no strategy to ameliorate its progress. Inevitably, tendinopathies lead to tendon rupture and once this happens, tendon natural healing is slow, often poorly responding to treatments and requires prolonged rehabilitation in most cases.
