Jon Beason out for year with torn Achilles
Even the most conditioned athlete, with the support of numerous athletic trainers and coaches, can succumb to the devastating injury of Achilles ruptures. The worst part about this fact, is that the injury can eliminate most patients from returning to prior-injury function without adequate treatment.
The Achilles is the strongest tendon in the body, however the forces that are exerted by this structure exceed loads equal to tow trucks pulling on a stationary car for portions of a second during exercises. Many patients are seen in our office with various injuries to this area, and some with spontaneous ruptures. I had previous discussed how this can occur, and for the sake of sports injuries I will limit this discussion to when load exceeds the Young's modulus for the tendinous structures.
This bascially means that the tendon has more force than the inherent scaffolding is able to withstand. This leads to weakening of the collagen matrix and eventually can lead to ruptures. In partial and complete ruptures associated with exercise and impact sports, surgery is recommended to reduce the rate of re-rupture. But as you may have read, our Carolina Pro Bowl linebacker will be sidelined with this for the season, because it may take up to 12 months for full remodeling of the tendon to occur even with surgical repair.
We use a nonabsorbable suture method which contains a metallic wire filament called a "tightrope". This is never absorbed by the body, and is interwoven throughout the tendon to reapproximate it's tension prior to the rupture. The body then needs to augment this surgical repair by bridging the collagen matrix across the damaged portion of the tendon until full strength is achieved. I always tell patients that it will take 3 months to walk again, and a year to run again. This is by no means a minor injury.Hopefully the Panthers have a good backup for their otherwise healthy linebacker this season !
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