by Brett D. Sachs, DPM
"The Achilles tendon - the biggest tendon and the largest tendon body. It’s very commonly injured. We see it all of the time. It mainly controls flexion of your knee. Many people don’t realize that it helps to bend your knee. It helps to bring your foot down and pull your foot up when you’re walking. That’s the most common thing that we see. Inflammation of the Achilles is typically caused by repetitive stress - overuse. It’s a classic ‘weekend warrior’ injury - we see it all of the time. Sudden injuries improper shoe gear, improper training, again, it’s a classic overuse - too much, too soon. There are some foot mechanics, people have a higher arch or flat feet, that can cause it. If your Achilles is too tight to begin with it can end up with Achilles tendinitis.
This is the back of the heel, back of the leg, heel bone here - there’s some swelling with the Achilles tendon. That’s kind of the end stage type of Achilles tendinitis that we see. As it goes along, you can get weakness of the tendon, you can get swelling, warmth, thickening of the tendon.
But, it does get that bad sometimes. The problem is that when they start to get that bad they can start to get degeneration of the tendon, and that’s when they start to become more prone to ruptures and further injuries."
