Snapped Achilles Heel - looking for answers please!!!

[Paul English]

HI

I'VE COMPLETELY SNAPPED MY ACHILLES HEEL TENDON 7cm FROM THE BOTTOM WITH A 1.3cm GAP AFTER A FREAK ACCIDENT SIX WEEKS AGO (3RD JANUARY 2005) WHEN A STEEL BACK CHAIR HIT ME ON THE BACK OF MY LEG. THIS WAS NO NORMAL TYPICAL ACHILLES HEEL INJURY AS IT WAS A 100% CLEAN BREAK, AND MY DOCTORS HAVE DECIDED TO PUT MY LEG IN A CAST. AFTER EXTENSIVE RESEARCH ON THE NET I'VE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT PERHAPS SURGERY WOULD HAVE BEEN A MUCH BETTER OPTION. I'M DESPERATE FOR SOME INPUT FROM ANYBODY ELSE, AS I'M GOING TO SEE MY DOCTOR AGAIN THIS WEEK COMING. SHOULD I INSIST ON SURGERY OR WILL I MAKE A COMPLETE RECOVERY THE CURRENT CONVENTIONAL WAY? ANY SUGGESTIONS OR ADVICE FROM SIMILAR SITUATIONS WOULD BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!

PAUL

[injuryupdate]

This depends on how old you are and how much sport you wish to play. The 'studies' show that people get 'reasonable' function without surgery, but for anyone who wants to do a running sport, surgery should be advised. Professional players have returned to top level after surgical repair of the Achilles tendon (albeit with slight loss of pace), but it is doubtful that you would run at a high pace after cast treatment only.

[SpPT]

HI

I'VE COMPLETELY SNAPPED MY ACHILLES HEEL TENDON 7cm FROM THE BOTTOM WITH A 1.3cm GAP AFTER A FREAK ACCIDENT SIX WEEKS AGO (3RD JANUARY 2005)
PAUL

Yeah I would agree with the previous post. I have rehabbed a few Achilles Tendon complete ruptures. None of the conservatively treated i.e. non-surgical patients have gone back to playing much sport. Caveat: most of them were treated non surgically because they weren't mad keen on sport anyway whereas the sportsman all had surgery

So?? - perhaps the best I can say is if it was my AT that was ruptured, I'd have had surgery.

DPR