Analysing the outcome of surgery for chronic Achilles tendinopathy over the last 50 years

AIM: To determine an association between when the study was performed, the robustness of the study and the outcomes for insertional and non-insertional Achilles tendinopathy surgery. METHODS: We performed a systematic review in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines to assess the methodology of studies investigating the outcome of surgery in chronic Achilles tendinopathy over the last 50 years to identify any trends that would account for the variable results. The Coleman Methodology Scores were correlated with the reported percentage success rates and with the publication year to determine any trends using Pearson’s correlation. RESULTS: We identified 62 studies published between 1964 and 2014 reporting on a total of 2923 surgically treated Achilles tendinopathies. The average follow-up time was 40 mo (range 5-204 mo), and the mean reported success rate was 83.5% (range 36%-100%). The Coleman Methodology Scores were highly reproducible (r = 0.99, P < 0.01), with a mean of 40.1 (SD 18.9, range 2-79). We found a negative correlation between reported success rate and overall methodology scores (r = -0.40, P < 0.001), and a positive correlation between year of publication and overall methodology scores (r = 0.46, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that although the success rate of surgery for chronic Acilles tendinopathy described in the literature has fallen over the last 50 years, this is probably due to a more rigorous methodology of the studies.