Posterior Tibial Tendon Tendovaginitis to Insufficiency: A Historical and Anatomical Review

is incompletely understood and remains troublesome for clinicians.19 Tendovaginitis and tenosynovitis have been historically used as synonyms and in conjunction with the term tendonitis.20 Griffiths described the term tenosynovitis in 1952 as "so vaguely is the word used that it has come to mean little more than a painful disability arising in or around a tendon or group of tendons."21 However, these terms imply varying pathology based on their etymology.Tendovaginitis is a term that refers to the inflammation of a tendon inside the tendon sheath, 22 while tenosynovitis refers to the inflammation of the tendon sheath itself.17,23 Tenosynovitis can be simple, traumatic, pyogenic, or granulomatous.24