Tendinitis explained

What is tendinitis?

Tendonitis is a painful inflammation that often results from overuse.

Tenosynovitis

If the sheath around the tendon becomes inflamed, rather than the tendon itself, the condition is called tenosynovitis. Tendinitis and tenosynovitis can occur together.

What is a Tendon?

A tendon is a tissue that attaches muscle to the bone. It is flexible, tough and fibrous and it can withstand tension.

Tendons and muscles work together and exert a pulling force.

The basic science of tendons and tendinitis:

Tendon is basically thick cord of connective tissue that is composed of collagen fibril as its basic structure. Tendons are also elastic and possess high tensile and bending stress. Thus they are able to produce remarkable amount of force in moving a bone. The structural arrangements of tendons are seen in the figure below. They have parallel fibres in a perfect arrangement.

Internal structure of tendon:

This is how a healthy tendon has bundles inside bundles and finally the basic material is collagen fibril. This collagen fibril is parallel to each other.

What happens in an injury?

In the diagram above we can see the distorted parallel fibre structure (in the injured tendons), which causes less force production and inefficiency in moving the bones. There will be inflammation causing unusual intramuscular pressure and further weakness.

What happens to a patient in this state?

• ·         Moderate to severe pain in movements and work.
• ·         Mild swelling or in some cases significant swelling.
• ·         Early morning stiffness.
• ·         If left untreated will progress to chronic state where it can cause atrophy (thinning)of the muscle.

First aid measure:

Ice the part and rest in a comfortable position. If you find the limbs hanging, then try to keep it supported. In mild cases patients usually recover within 2-4 weeks. In severe cases the problem has to be assessed and treated accordingly.

Treatment:

• ·         TENS combined with ice is a best method to reduce intramuscular pressure.
• ·         Laser can heal internal collagen damage
• ·         Taping can be used to improve muscle function once mild healing has started.
• ·         Then according to the advice of Physiotherapist use selected rehabilitation.

At Newzone we provide complete solutions to all your Tendinopathies and the associated issues, thereby leading to a full functional activity. Thanks for you time to read our article. We are always ready to answer your valuable questions.