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Post-surgical Achilles calcific tendinopathy treated with ultrasound-guided percutaneous irrigation

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Abstract

Calcific tendinopathy typically affects the shoulder rotator cuff tendons. Its management includes shock wave therapy and US-guided percutaneous irrigation, with surgery being less and less used. Extra-shoulder calcific tendinopathy is relatively infrequent and typically affects the hip. While the diagnostic techniques and the treatment options for shoulder calcific tendinopathy have been extensively described, there are only anecdotic reports on the other sites. In this paper, we have reported an unusual case of non-insertional Achilles calcific tendinopathy which occurred many years after Achilles surgical repair. This condition, which presented similar appearance to that of the rotator cuff calcific tendinopathy, is totally different from the well-known and more common insertional calcific Achilles tendinopathy in terms of pathophysiological, imaging, and clinical findings. Further, we have shown that US-guided percutaneous irrigation might be a safe, technically feasible, mini-invasive, and effective treatment also for Achilles calcific tendinopathy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Via R. Galeazzi 4, 20161, Milan, Italy

    Domenico Albano, Carmelo Messina & Luca Maria Sconfienza

  2. Sezione di Scienze Radiologiche, Dipartimento di Biomedicina, Neuroscienze e Diagnostica Avanzata, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via del Vespro 127, 90127, Palermo, Italy

    Domenico Albano

  3. Scuola di Specializzazione in Radiodiagnostica, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20122, Milan, Italy

    Ilaria Vicentin

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20122, Milan, Italy

    Carmelo Messina & Luca Maria Sconfienza

Authors
  1. Domenico Albano
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  2. Ilaria Vicentin
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  3. Carmelo Messina
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  4. Luca Maria Sconfienza
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Correspondence to Domenico Albano.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This study was approved by our Institutional Review Board. The patient provided written informed consent. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Albano, D., Vicentin, I., Messina, C. et al. Post-surgical Achilles calcific tendinopathy treated with ultrasound-guided percutaneous irrigation. Skeletal Radiol 49, 1475–1480 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-020-03453-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-020-03453-5

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