Achilles Tendinopathy

Achilles Tendinopathy is an injury to the band of tissue (tendon) that connects the muscles in your lower leg to your heel bone. You may get pain, stiffness and sometimes swelling around your heel. It’s a common injury, especially if you’re very active or do lots of sports. You may sometimes hear Achilles Tendinopathy called Achilles tendonitis. This means your tendon is inflamed. But because there isn’t always inflammation when your tendon is injured, this term isn’t strictly accurate.

Symptoms of Achilles Tendinopathy:

• Pain in your heel – this may be an ache or a sharp pain, which feels worse when you’ve been active or put pressure on it
• Stiffness in your tendon – often this is worse first thing in the morning or if you’ve been resting for a while
• Swelling at the back of your ankle
• Tenderness when you touch your tendon
• A grating noise or creaking feeling (crepitus) when you move your ankle

How we treat Achilles Tendinopathy:

For an Achilles Tendinopathy that has been present for 3 months or more, we recommend Radial Shockwave treatment together with a program of loading and stretching exercises. Radial shockwaves are low energy pressure waves that are delivered to damaged tissue. This increases blood flow, has an analgesic effect and stimulates the body’s natural repair and regenerative processes. Extensive research has shown Radial Shockwave treatment combined with exercise to be remarkably effective for chronic tendinopathy. We would also examine your gait and the biomechanics of the lower limb to determine any biomechanical factors that might worsen the condition, and treat them by mobilising restricted joints or relaxing tight muscles. More acute tendinopathies can be treated by resting from any causative exercise, gently stretching the tendon, treating tight muscles in the lower limb, using needling and low light laser to trigger the body’s own healing mechanisms around the tendon.