Purpose: To evaluate ankle function following endoscopically guided percutaneous Achilles tendon repair. The hypothesis of this study was that patients with percutaneous repair of the Achilles tendon would still display impaired involved side ankle proprioception.
Methods: Nineteen male patients with percutaneous Achilles tendon surgery were tested for bilateral ankle active angle reproduction at 10° dorsiflexion and 15° plantar flexion, peak concentric isokinetic ankle dorsiflexor and plantar flexor torque, one-leg hop for distance, and single-leg vertical jump height. Dominant sides of age- and sex-matched 19 healthy controls were evaluated for ankle active angle reproduction at 10° dorsiflexion and 15° plantar flexion, peak concentric isokinetic ankle dorsiflexor and plantar flexor torque.
Results: Peak isokinetic torque, one-leg hop for distance, single-leg vertical jump for height and ankle joint position sense at 10° dorsiflexion did not differ between the affected and unaffected side. Ankle joint position sense for active angle replication at 15° plantar flexion revealed a significant side-to-side difference. Joint position sense at 10° dorsiflexion and at 15° plantar flexion at affected side was poor in patients compared with the controls, while joint position sense at 10° dorsiflexion and at 15° plantar flexion at unaffected side was same in patients compared with the controls.
Conclusions: It has revealed a significant difference in joint position sense at plantar flexion of the patients at least 1 year after percutaneous Achilles tendon surgery compared to their unaffected limb. Large prospective longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate therapeutic interventions designed to improve proprioception.