Tendon Injuries in the lower limb Diagnosis and Classification

Tendons are a specific dense regular connective tissue and bind muscles to bone acting as transducers of the muscle contraction to skeletal structures, allowing mobility and joint stability. Tendon injuries are a common clinical condition both in sports and in the workplace. These injuries vary in a range of acute rupture to chronic tendinopathy. Acute tendon tears are derived from a traumatic event or a spontaneous rupture in a degenerate tissue, while chronic tendinopathy is due to overuse situation as in excessive sports activity. About the tendinopathy, the clinical scenario is quite uniform. Patients complain of pain in the affected tendon area, sometimes insidiously during a sports practice, advancing to light activities, or the pain may even be present at rest. However, patients with acute tendon rupture have pain and joint movement dysfunction. The diagnosis of these lesions should always be based on the patient clinical condition. Imaging tests are used to confirm and describe these injuries, assisting in the therapeutic decision. The tendon injuries vary in relation to their form of presentation, and they can be classified according to symptoms, imaging findings, histopathological process, evolution of time, causal factor, correlated risk factors, and other associated diseases or drugs.