Current Concepts in Acute Achilles Tendon Injury

Achilles' name comes from Greek Mythology. Achilleus, the trojan war hero, succumbed to an arrow shot in his heel, leading to the terminology-Achilles Heel, meaning the weakest point in the generally otherwise strong constitution. Achilles tendon injury is a debilitating injury, and as a tendon, it is most commonly ruptured. There has been a steady increase in the incidence of acute Achilles tendon rupture (AATR). The incidence of ATR has been reported from 6:100,000 in the Scottish cohort to 18:100,000 in the Scandinavian study. 1 Similar studies from other parts of the world report increasing incidence.