Background: The epidemiology of Achilles tendon ruptures and treatment strategies have undergone a major change in recent years. We investigated the incidence of acute Achilles tendon ruptures, the choice of treatment strategies and treatment implementation.
Materials and methods: The research material consisted of patients living in the catchment area of Central Finland Hospital District who had been diagnosed with an acute Achilles tendon rupture between 2010 and 2015.
Results: The final sample consisted of 266 patients. Conservative treatment was started for 207 patients, and the remaining 59 were referred for surgery. During the study period, the proportion of patients undergoing surgery fell from 41% to 10%. Three patients (1.4%) were referred for surgery during conservative treatment, and 10 patients (4.7%) developed deep vein thrombosis while wearing a cast or an orthosis. Twelve patients (5.8%) sustained a re-rupture after conservative treatment. Two surgically-treated patients (3.5%) sustained a re-rupture, and one patient (1.7%) developed deep vein thrombosis.
Conclusions: The strategies for treating acute Achilles tendon ruptures have clearly become more conservative in our hospital. Conservative treatment is safe and rarely fails. However, it is important to bear in mind that surgery still has a role in the treatment of acute Achilles tendon ruptures.