Injuries to the tendons

Tendons transfer the power of the muscles onto the bones and move the joints. Damage to tendons may be caused by overloading or due to injuries, e.g. abrupt movements may cause strain or tearing of the tendon fibres. As the tendons usually exhibit high stability, tears mostly show up on pre-damaged tendons. As such, inflammations of the tendons or synovial sheath of tendons weaken and increase the risk of tears to the tendon. Therefore, the treatment of such injuries always requires an assessment of the cause so that therapy can be applied to this, if necessary – for example, with anti-inflammatory drugs.

Symptoms: Tendon sprain usually shows up through discomfort during joint movements. Tears to the tendons are usually limited to a sudden, stabbing pain. Patients often also feel a ‘crack’ and can no longer move the affected joint actively.

Therapy: In many cases related to tendon disease, conservative treatments such as cold or heat applications and anti-inflammatory drugs ease the complaints. In cases of chronic inflammation, e.g. the wrist area, the inflamed the tendon sheath has to be removed. If the tendon ends are close enough to one another, we often manage without surgery. Usually immobilisation of the adjacent joints is enough to ensure that the tendon can grow back together. If in tendon injuries, the ends are too far apart, operational measures have to take place, e.g. tendon suture or – rarely – tendon transplantation